The UK government has suspended a Syrian aid program to investigate reports that the money is ending up in the wrong hands.
A government spokesperson broke the news on Sunday, hours after a BBC investigation revealed that the cash used to form an unarmed police force in militant-held areas was being diverted to extremist groups.
According to the report, officers from the force, known as the Free Syrian Police (FSP), have been caught cooperating with militant groups. This contravenes the force’s main obligation, which was supposed to be an unarmed civilian police force.
The government spokesman said Prime Minister Theresa May and her team took the allegations “extremely seriously.”
“We take any allegations of co-operation with terrorist groups and of human rights abuses extremely seriously and the Foreign Office has suspended this program while we investigate these allegations,” he said.
The FSP officers are accused of handing over…