Al-Qaida abducts US-backed Syrian rebels

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. Last year, it routed two rebel militias, the Syria Revolutionaries Front and the Hazzm Movement. The representative spoke on condition of anonymity for security considerations.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based group that often statistics upon the battle, said males were usually kidnapped while you are strolling back from an arrangement in Azaz, east of Aleppo, to assist endeavors by using other factions.

The U.S. tried to spearhead a new program to train and arm 5,400 moderate rebels to fight the Islamic State group, this time under the direction of the Department of Defense. The so-called train-and-equip program, which was set to start in May, has been delayed, and no one knows when, or even if, it will start.

Islamic State’s insurgents have been targeting strongholds of Nusra and the Free Syrian Army (FSA) in the northern countryside of Aleppo with suicide attacks since months.

The kidnapping of the U.S. moderate rebels could put a major dent in the plan to create a safe zone in Syria, which Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said could pave the way for millions of refugees to return home. “Bashar Assad’s war on the Syrian people has fostered the conditions for ISIL’s continued growth, recruitment, and radicalization of Muslims across the world”.

The Pentagon denied reports Thursday that new graduates of its program to train Syrian rebels had been captured by rivals from an Al-Qaeda affiliate. Pentagon officials say the vetting has been so strict that of an estimated 6,000 Syrian volunteers, only 1,500 have been declared qualified so far and that of those, few than 100 have been retained in the training taking place at bases in Jordan and Turkey.

Turkey recently launched airstrikes against Daesh and the PKK in Syria and Iraq.