REUTERS/Ammar KhassawnehA member of Islamist Syrian rebel group Jabhat al-Nusra mans a checkpoint on the border crossing between Syria and Jordan, which they claim to have taken control of, in Daraa December 26, 2013.
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It came one day after Al Nusra kidnapped eight rebels from Division 30, who had been trained and equipped by Washington, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
A statement issued in the name of Division 30, said its fighters prevented Nusra Front gunmen from storming their head office and added that the fighting is still ongoing. Witnesses also said unknown aircraft, widely believed to be from the American-led air coalition, were supporting the moderate rebels in their fight against Nusra.
The statement also cited the strikes on its headquarters, which it said comprised more than ten rockets and left a number of dead and wounded, as proof of the collusion between Division 30 and the West. He declined to say whether his group was among those trained by the U.S., saying only: “The Division supports any side that helps Syria and the Syrians against Daesh”.
Syria’s conflict began in March 2011 with anti-government protests, but has devolved into a multi-front civil war among rebels, regime forces, Kurdish fighters and militant groups.
Isis splintered from the al-Nusra Front in 2013 after a public feud between the two groups’ leaders in which Zawahiri attempted to intervene.
The al-Qaeda -linked al-Nusra Front called on Washington-backed Syrian rebels to withdraw from a “US programme” on Friday, after inflicting a series of punishing defeats on the group.
But Nusra Front said the men it was holding were U.S.-trained and had entered Syria several days earlier. The opposition source said they were abducted on Tuesday night.
Jaish al-Thuwar, a rebel alliance formed earlier this year, said in a statement posted on Facebook on Friday that four of its members and at least eight attackers had been killed.
Hazm was defeated earlier this year while during clashes with the Front which took place in the northwest. The Observatory said 18 Nusra Front fighters were killed in the fighting and the airstrikes.
So far the U.S. has trained only 54 Syrian rebels and provided them with small arms only.
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New Syrian Force is the terminology Washington uses to refer to the Syria-based militants vetted by the US military to purportedly exclude radical elements.
