Al-Qaida’s branch in Syria withdrawing from area near Turkey

But a Defense Department official said Monday that the United States has not seen any movements to indicate the group was following through with its pullout plan.

In a different advancement Monday, assailants opened discharge outside the US Consulate in Istanbul, setting off a brief weapon fight with police.

Turkey and the United States have agreed on the terms of a “safe zone” in northern Syria, broadcaster CNN Turk quoted Ankara’s foreign ministry undersecretary as saying on Tuesday. The offensive complicates the challenge of securing the buffer zone from ground attacks by Islamic militants, but also adds to the urgency of setting it up, say analysts. Turkey began carrying out airstrikes against IS targets in Syria two weeks ago.

Six F-16s, support equipment and about 300 personnel arrived at Incirlik Air Base on Sunday following an agreement for U.S. assets to fly anti-Islamic State missions out of the Turkish base.

The Nusra Front said the Turkish government’s plan to establish a buffer zone aimed to prevent the establishment of a Kurdish state at its southeastern border. Their fate remains unknown.

Last week, a senior American official confirmed that one of the newly trained fighters had been killed and two others wounded in an attack by the Nusra Front on their base.

“And we’ve also said, been very clear that we’re not interested in doing anything that is going to change the territorial integrity of Syria“, Kirby said, asserting that no support would be made by coalition forces to do anything to change the territorial integrity of Syria.

In July, it kidnapped a number of fighters with Division 30, a rebel faction that was the first to include graduates of a US training program for Syrian rebels in Turkey. The al-Qaida affiliate has emerged as one of the most powerful rebel groups in the country, entering coalitions with other opposition fighters, most notably in the northern province of Idlib where it has scored a series of victories against the Assad regime along with their allies.

Islamic State militants on Tuesday released 22 Christians they had held captive since February, following mediation by tribal leaders, activists said. Be that as it may, the system confronted various setbacks even before it was assaulted. Militants in northeast Syria are now estimated to have abducted at least 220 Assyrian Christians this week, a group monitoring the war reported.

“This follows Turkey’s decision to host the deployment of US aircraft conducting counter-Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) operations”.

The Nusra Front and the IS group are both committed to bringing about Islamic rule in Syria, but are bitterly divided and have battled each other across the country. ISIS claimed responsibility of the attack a day later.