Al-Qaida Affiliate Abducts US-backed Rebels in Northern Syria

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 new “Syrian Safe Zone” that the US and Turkey have agreed to create will be some 60 miles of “moderate insurgent” held territory along the Turkish border.

Nusra Front has proven itself effective against US-backed rebel groups in Syria.

An al-Qaida affiliate abducted an American-trained rebel commander and seven of his fighters in northern Syria just days after they deployed in the war-torn country.

According to a monitoring group, fighters with the rebel militia Division 30 were snatched on Tuesday night by jihadists mounting a checkpoint near the Syrian town of Zahart al-Malkia, about 40 kilometers northeast of Homs.

A representative of “Division 30” said reports that the group was Western-backed were likely the reason behind the kidnapping.

Even before this week’s abduction, U.S. officials admitted that one of the big challenges with the planned safe zone, stretching 40 kilometers inside Syria, is that al-Nusra and a hardline Islamist militia, Ahrar al-Sham, are strong in the area.

This unit was allegedly going to take a “central role” in “sweeping Islamic State fighters” from northern Syria, while an entirely different CIA program was training a “larger group of fighters” to take out Assad.

The US Department of Defence went on the offensive on Thursday to deny reports that graduates of its Syrian “train and equip programme” were captured by al-Nusra Front shortly after beginning active combat.

He said: “These remarks by Kirby do not fully represent our agreement with the U.S. Our deal does not include groups that have their own agenda, such as the PYD”. 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. The Pentagon, for example, on Wednesday issued a forceful denial that any rebel involved in the U.S. effort had been captured, with spokesman Navy Capt. Jeff Davis telling McClatchy that the trainees “are all present and accounted for”.