Backed rebels give arms to al-Qaeda group

The rebels surrendered six pickup trucks and ammunition to an Nusra Front “intermediary”, the Pentagon said in a statement.The Nusra Front is an al-Qaeda affiliate in Syria.

In a separate Facebook post purporting to belong to Division 30, unidentified posters said they had lost contact with Abu Zayd, could not confirm that he had defected to Nusra and vowed to “submit him to the military court on charges of high treason” if he is found to have joined the al-Qaida group. The U.S. Central Command also confirmed that 70 graduates of Syria’s train and equip program went to Syria with their equipment and weapons and worked as New Syrian Forces together with Sunni Arab, Syrian Kurds and other anti-ISIL forces.

CENTCOM said the equipment was supposedly given to the Al Nusra Front, often referred to as Al Qaeda in Syria, in exchange for safe travel through the area. “Central Command conducted an analysis of the image… and determined the claim to be false”, the statement said.

“In light of this new information, we wanted to ensure the public was informed as quickly as possible about the facts as we know them at this time”, said Col. Ryder.

“We are using all means at our disposal to look into what exactly happened and determine the appropriate response”, he added.

US officials said the Syrians continue to insist that they have not relinquished any actual weapons to the Nusra Front and that all of their personnel are still accounted for.

Officials say the Obama administration has discovered a chain of emails that Hillary Rodham Clinton failed to turn over when she provided what she said was the full record of work-related correspondence as… Their main goal is the overthrow of President Bashar al-Assad.

“In the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful, we, the grouping of revolutionaries of Atareb and its countryside, announce that we are outside Division 30 infantry and we are an independent faction working on the Syrian lands in isolation from coordination with the global (U.S.-led) coalition“. He said providing equipment to the Nusra Front is a violation of the training and equipping program.

As part of a new initiative, White House and Pentagon officials have been considering providing arms and ammunition to a wider array of rebel groups and relaxing some vetting standards.

The push to arm more forces in Syria has been driven partly by frustration with the stalemated fight in Iraq, where an Iraqi army assault on Ramadi has ground to a halt. The rebels would be trained by USA advisers in locations outside the country and then inserted back into Syria.