In the wake of an agreement between the United States and Turkey to work together with moderate rebels to root out ISIS along the Turkey-Syria border, an Al-Qaeda affiliate in Syria, al-Nusra Front, has reportedly attacked the headquarters of Division 30, a US-backed rebel group, and captured their leader.
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The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK based group which reports on the conflict, said that the men had been abducted while returning from a meeting to co-ordinate efforts with other factions.
The letters went on to say that Turkey also continued to train and arm terrorists from Jabhat al-Nusra and other terrorist organizations affiliated to Al Qaeda, assisting them with artillery and rocket fire when they entered Idleb province under the name of “Al-Fateh Army”. The 30th Division is one of the more moderate Syrian rebel groups.
The fighting, which the Observatory said had killed at least 13 people on both sides, points to one of the major complications facing U.S. and Turkish plans to jointly sweep Islamic State militants from northern Syria.
Pentagon spokeswoman Commander Elissa Smith confirmed an attack on Friday by an “unknown force” on U.S.-trained Syrian forces and members of the 30th Division, in which she differentiated between the two groups.
But a U.S. official familiar with the training program, who was not authorized to speak publicly on the matter, said that the capture was “definitely a setback” for U.S. and Turkish plans to use Division 30 fighters to help direct airstrikes against Islamic State forces and establish a rebel-controlled safe zone in the area.
A statement released by “Division 30” accused Nusra Front of abducting their leader Nadim al-Hasan and a number of his companions in a rural area north of Aleppo, AFP reported.
It was also instrumental in the demise of the U.S.-backed Hazzm Movement, which collapsed earlier this year after clashing with the Nusra Front in the northwest.
“All the information that we have is that none of the… new Syrian forces have been captured”, Marine Corps Brigadier General Kevin Killea said in a briefing with reporters.
Division 30 called on rebels to come to their aid in defending the base, and demanded that Al-Nusra stop “spilling the blood of Muslims”.
It said at least 18 Nusra Front fighters had been killed in the strikes and ground fighting, while seven rebel fighters had died in the clashes. Instead, they launched an attack on the Division 30 command near Azaz, they said.
The U.S. considers this “train and equip” mission critical to any success in defeating ISIS in Syria, but are well short of the 5,400 fighters they had hoped to train by the end of this year.
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Although the trainees are not officially designated as spotters for the upcoming U.S. air attacks, they were given equipment that would allow them to send the coordinates of Islamic State fighters to U.S. personnel on the Turkish side of the border.
