Air strikes hit Nusra after attack on Western-backed rebels

Meanwhile, Division 30 accused Nusra Front fighters of abducting its leader and several other members earlier this week.

Five of the group’s fighters were killed and several more wounded in the clashes, Division 30 said in a statement. 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.

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.

Al Qaeda’s Syria affiliate, Al-Nusra Front, said on Friday that it had captured “moderate” rebel fighters who were receiving training from the United States.

Jihadists with ties to Al Qaeda have kidnapped commanders of a US-backed rebel group fighting in northern Syria.

The Azaz meeting “was specifically to coordinate with other rebel groups on the ground to begin a military operation against the Islamic State group in northeastern Aleppo province”, said Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman.

He said that Al Nusra launched the attack to seize weapons “given by Washington to the rebels” but that the group had not been able to enter the base as clashes continued during the day.

“We warn the soldiers of this division not to proceed with the American plan…”

The US-led coalition bombed Nusra targets on Friday, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a monitoring group with wide contacts inside Syria.

Nusra Front had yet to comment on those reports.

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 Observatory said 18 Nusra Front fighters were killed in the fighting and the airstrikes.

“All the information that we have is that none of the… new Syrian forces have been captured”, Marine Corps Brigadier General Kevin Killea said in a briefing with reporters.

However, the group’s repeated targeting on suspicion of involvement with US training programmes represents a further blow to Washington’s policy on Syria, coming as Central Intelligence Agency officials admit that a year-long, billion-dollar campaign against IS has left it in “strategic stalemate”. Fewer than 60 have recently entered Syria.

The abductions illustrate the challenges confronting the Obama administration as it seeks to marshal local insurgents to fight the Islamic State, which it views as the biggest threat in the region.