CIA warns of crisis as al-Qaeda prepares to pounce An explosion at a weapons depot in Homs last month: The CIA says there is a danger that weapons might fall into the hands of al-Qaeda. The war in Syria poses the greatest threat to US security because of the risk of the government falling and the country becoming a weapons-rich haven for al-Qaeda, a CIA official said in Washington. CIA deputy director Michael Morell gave the assessment in an interview published by the Wall Street Journal as he prepares to retire after 33 years with the agency. Mr Morell said there were more foreign fighters flowing into Syria each month to take up arms with al-Qaeda-affiliated groups than there were going to Iraq to fight with al-Qaeda at the height of the war there. The Syrian government's weapons "are going to be up for grabs and up for sale" as they were in Libya when Muammar Gaddafi fell, he added. "It's probably the most important issue in the world today," he said of the war in Syria, "because of where it is currently heading" - towards the fall of the government of President Bashar al-Assad. But Mr Morell's assessment contrasts with that of many experts who believe Syrian troops are gaining the upper hand. And it came as Syrian rebels suffered a huge blow when more than 60 fighters were killed in an ambush at Adra, near Damascus. The Syrian regime's military said those killed were members of the jihadist al-Nusra Front. A military source said the "army carried out an ambush on a group of terrorists belonging to the al-Nusra Front that was trying to infiltrate eastern Ghouta and attack a military post." "All the terrorists were killed and their arms captured," the source added, without giving a toll. Adra, 35 kilometres from Damascus, is the gateway to eastern Ghouta, a farming region on the eastern outskirts of the capital where the rebels have bases. Meanwhile, human rights group Amnesty International issued a report saying entire neighbourhoods of the northern city of Aleppo have been flattened over the past year. "Aleppo has been utterly devastated, its people fleeing the conflagration in huge numbers," Amnesty's senior crisis response adviser, Donatella Rovera, said. The group released satellite images of several districts, taken before and after the clashes. Aleppo became a battleground in July last year, when rebels launched an offensive.