Militants of Nusra also captured a number of rebel fighters who have been trained by the U.S. army.
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A spokesman for the American military, Col. Patrick S. Ryder, wrote in an email statement that “we are confident that this attack will not deter Syrians from joining the program to fight for Syria”, and added that the program “is making progress.” There, against his parents wishes, he quickly joined the anti-regime Free Syrian Army, before moving to a smaller Turkmen brigade and then to the so-called 30th Division, created by the United States, Turkey and their allies as the vanguard of Washington’s effort to roll back Isis’s territorial gains.
The trainees fought effectively? Trainees will lose American support, Gen. Lloyd J. Austin III, head of the United States Central Command said recently, if they “vector off and do things that we haven’t designed them to do initially”.
In a statement on Friday, Division 30’s leaders called on all nationalist Syrian insurgents to “stand firm and proactively” against what they called an unprovoked attack, and asked “the brothers in the Nusra Front” to “stop the bloodshed and preserve the unity”.
The moderates, at any rate, are bit players in a rebellion in which numerous most radical Islamist insurgents are better-funded, better-equipped and more motivated, participants said.
New details about the Pentagon training and its problems were revealed in interviews over several months with about two dozen fighters and commanders, and with several senior U.S. officials involved or briefed, who requested anonymity to discuss military planning.
The fighting came a few days after the U.S. and Turkey announced the outlines of a deal to help rebels push the Islamic State group back from a strip of territory it controls along the Syrian-Turkish border, replacing it with more moderate rebels backed by Washington and Ankara. Nusra and other rebel groups, they knew, targeted recipients of foreign aid not just because of their anti-Western ideology, but also because they coveted the M16s and anti-tank guided missiles that coalition forces provided. The government’s main presence there is aerial bombardment, while the front lines on the ground face the Islamic State. Ahrar al-Sham has often aligned with the Nusra Front, but it has been at odds with the group in some places lately over power and over how to govern areas they have conquered.
At least ten Nusra militants were killed and several more wounded during the strikes, a military source told ARA News. It was not clear whether the 20 captives included the six fighters and two commanders captured a day earlier.
“That report had nothing to do with the Syrian fighters we trained and equipped”, said Marine Corp. The program has produced only a handful of graduates so far, in part because of a screening process to root out suspected extremists that Division 30’s leaders say is too stringent.
The first contingent of about 60 was sent into Syria on July 14, with new equipment and vehicles.
On Thursday, a US defence department spokeswoman denied the rebels reported capture.
Al-Nusra has previously attacked US-backed groups in northern Syria, including the Syrian Revolutionaries Front and the Hazm Movement, leading to the dissolution of both factions.
“We warn the soldiers of this division not to proceed with the American plan…”
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The war, in which various fighting groups have carved out what are fluid areas of control, has killed at least 230,000 people.
