CIA joins allies helping Syrian opposition DAMASCUS, Syria, June 21 (UPI) -- Allies in southern Turkey helping Syrian opposition fighters have been joined by a small number of CIA officers, U.S. and Arab officials said. The officials told the New York Times the CIA officers are helping the allies decide which Syrian opposition fighters across the border will receive arms to fight the Syrian government. The arms are being funneled mostly across the Turkish border by a network of intermediaries that include Syria's Muslim Brotherhood. They are paid for by Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, the Times reported Thursday. A senior U.S. official said the CIA officers have been in southern Turkey for several weeks, in part to keep weapons out of the hands of al-Qaida and other terrorist groups. The Syrian Network for Human Rights reported a number of extra judicial executions of civilians by military forces Thursday including three in the Damascus suburb of Douma. Random artillery shelling by the military killed a child in Homs and severely injured a group of children in Dar'aa. The struggle inside Syria has the potential to intensify in coming months as powerful new weapons are flowing to both the Syrian government and opposition fighters. Diplomats said both Washington and London might be willing to offer safe passage or clemency to Syrian President Bashar Assad if he relinquishes power. The possibility -- modeling an Assad exit similar to one that of former Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh in February -- emerged after U.S. President Barack Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron met individually with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the summit of the Group of 20 leading industrial and developing economies in Los Cabos, Mexico, the diplomats told the British newspapers The Guardian and The Independent. Syrian elections eventually would be held.