US To Allow Air Power To Defend Syrian Rebels

The U.S. military is expanding its combat role in Syria in defense of coalition-backed rebels, conducting armed drone missions into Syria from an air base in Turkey and imposing new rules allowing the U.S.to defend rebels against attacks from any hostile force, including the Assad government.

Nadeem Hasan, the commander of this U.S.-trained force, known as “Division 30”, has been captured by al-Nusra.

Pentagon officials initially identified several thousand Syrian rebels as potential candidates for the train-and-equip program, but many were disqualified through their prior connections to extremist groups.

Five Division 30 rebels were captured on Wednesday, while eight of them were wounded during Friday’s attack, the defense officials said.

Turkish fighter jets struck three Islamic State targets in Syria early Friday morning, a response to intelligence suggesting a likely attack from the group, government officials said.

The U.S. aircraft came in, provided air support and “successfully repelled the attack”, one U.S. official told CNN.

The U.S. military has begun flying armed aircraft over Syria from Turkey, the Pentagon said Monday, a move that could expand its ability to carry out airstrikes to protect U.S.-trained rebels in northern Syria.

Officials said another impetus for the decision was the recent insertion of the first group of Pentagon-trained fighters into northern Syria, where last week they were ambushed by al Qaeda-linked fighters.

Despite its North Atlantic Treaty Organisation membership, and its misleading image as supposedly the most Western of Muslim nations, Turkey is quite anti-American, more so than many Mideast Islamic states.

“At some point, the new parliament will have to reflect on the illogicality of our planes turning back, if you like, at the border while other countries fly on”.

The D.R. officers who disclosed the dying of the D.J.-educated Syrian fighter stated Division 30 additionally suffered casualties. “The people we are training and equipping are pledged to fight ISIL and only ISIL, so this is not something we view as inviting confrontation with Assad in any way”, he added.

The Pentagon-backed force has been explicitly directed not to conduct offensive operations against the Assad regime, the officials said.

Haaretz reported al-Nusra Front had published a new, English-language magazine.

The new technology comes as Russia’s TASS news agency says that Russian Federation is reportedly ready to send troops into Syria to boost efforts to defend Damascus and assist government forces.

It also agreed this week to let the US military use the Incirlik air base near the Syrian border to launch its own attacks on IS, following months of negotiations. The assault pushed the CIA-backed rebels out of northern Syria.

The U.S. had hoped to train 3,000 Syrian rebels by the end of this year, Brett McGurk, the deputy special presidential envoy for the coalition against Islamic State, said in May. Then, Secretary of State John Kerry in February: “Defending those who are engaged in the fight of ISIL, it seems to me, is an important part of defeating ISIL”. “Moscow has stressed multiple times that helping Syrian Opposition, let alone helping with financial or (military) technical means, would lead to a further destabilisation of the situation”, Kremlin spoke-sman Dmitry Peskov said.