First US-trained Syria rebel believed killed in fighting

The new flight missions from Turkey’s base come as the U.S. launched attacks against non-Islamic State forces for the first time, according to Davis.

Alistair Baskey, a National Security Council spokesman, said U.S.-trained rebels “are being provided with a wide range of coalition support” that includes defensive strikes.

The official said “this has been months in the making”.

Syrian regime forces this week managed to retake the Sahl al-Ghab area from the Jeysh al-Fatah – an umbrella group of opposition factions – in Syria’s Hama province, opposition sources said Sunday.

The Pentagon has denied claims that US-trained members of Division 30 had been captured.

The decision comes as the U.S. and Turkey discussed joint operations to clear a zone along the Turkish-Syrian border of Islamic State militants. Numerous potential fighters are committed to defeating the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, which the U.S. has been careful to say it is not trying to do.

A crater left by a government airstrike on April 19, 2015 in the rebel held Sakhur neighbourhood of the northern Syrian city of Aleppo. ISIL is another name for the Islamic State. Mr. Obama has ruled out committing U.S. ground forces to the fight. Some on Capitol Hill, including Sen. But to see just how poorly, it helps to look at this brief timeline of the Pentagon’s Syrian rebel training program.

Tasked with fighting alongside al-Qaeda’s Syrian franchise, the Nusra Front, Washington’s newest proxy army in Syria was expected be welcomed by the group.

Only around 60 have been deployed to the battlefield so far. If the coalition forces keep their promises to protect the first set of trainees, “we expect the number of people in the second training group to increase”, he added.

The U.S. launched airstrikes in Iraq on August eight and in Syria on September 23 to focus on ISIS. But the Arizona Republican expressed concern about “a policy of gradual escalation that has plagued U.S. efforts since the start of the conflict in Syria“.

Davis said the Pentagon had no reason to believe the personnel involved in Friday’s attack were affiliated with the Assad regime.

The difficulties encountered by this program stem both from the inability of the Pentagon to vet Syrian fighters, who are overwhelmingly drawn from Islamist extremist groups like the Nusra Front, and the unwillingness of these same fighters to be identified as US-paid mercenaries.

“In Washington, several current and former senior administration officials acknowledged that the attack and the abductions by the Nusra Front took American officials by surprise and represented a significant intelligence failure”, the New York Times reported Saturday. The United States has sought to avoid a direct confrontation with Assad. U.S. officials say those warnings have been heeded thus far.

[U.S.-backed rebels trained to summon airstrikes] . And the Kurds have come under relentless attack from Turkish President Recep Erdogan after the Turks agreed to allow US planes to use their strategic military bases near the Syrian border last week.