Rebels trained by the US are captured in Syria

Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem was quoted by state television on Wednesday as saying Syria supported efforts to combat ISIL, provided they were coordinated with Damascus.

An armed drone carried out the strike in Syria on Tuesday, Pentagon spokesman Capt. Jeff Davis said on Wednesday.

Only 54 fighters have completed the training program so far, illustrating the difficulty the Pentagon has had finding recruits to team up with Washington to fight Islamic State militants.

Davis also said that the military was anticipating attacks on Syrian forces before it put them into battle.

“Perhaps they could agree to protect the units that train and equip members embed with, most probably in and around Aleppo“, said Stein.

But there are problems.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest said Assad’s regime had not so far hampered U.S.-backed forces, but he nonetheless raised the possibility of strikes against it should the need arise.

Turkey began its first round of airstrikes against the Islamic State on Syrian soil this week, with Turkish leaders vowing a more aggressive approach to defeating the terrorist organization. The killing of two police officers by alleged Kurdish rebels prompted the Turkish government to retaliate against the Kurdistan Workers Party, PKK, with airstrikes to strongholds which stretch from southeastern Turkey to northern Iraq.

Ankara says the Syrian Kurds are fighting ISIS only because the jihadists stand in the way of their planned autonomous region.

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has accused Syria’s Kurds of trying “to form a corridor from the utmost east to the Mediterranean”. Turkey had been reluctant since March to allow coalition air strikes from their bases. “So, I would expect that that kind of air support will continue”.

Turkey summoned the Arab League’s envoy in Ankara to the foreign ministry in a show of protest, the ministry said in a statement. Did they quit because the fight’s become too unsafe with Al Qaeda targeting them?

Turkey is meanwhile distrustful of the Syrian-Kurdish People’s Protection Unit (YPG) militia, which has proved a useful US ally in fighting ISIS, and which controls adjacent territory.

Like Kuloglu, many Turkish analysts believe Washington is merely appeasing Turkey by going along with its calls for a safe zone.

Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said the strikes were “100 percent” successful and eliminated their targets.

That position changed after deadly attacks inside Turkey, some of which were blamed on Islamic State militants. Some made it back to Turkey. Fewer than 60 have recently entered Syria. At the time, the U.S. military said the fighters repelled the attack, without citing casualties among the U.S.-trained force. Talks with the U.S. about the issue would probably take place in the coming days, one official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

“This should have been declared publicly by President Obama or Secretary Carter, who should have then been willing to answer some of the clarifying questions that Administration officials have refused to address in Congressional hearings”.

Turkish officials admit that there is no plan yet for how the return of refugees into a safe zone would work. “By god, the drone struck our brothers in front of us”, he says.