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Plan to Train Syrian Rebels Backfires

<p>A group of&nbsp&semi;US-trained Syrian rebels crossed though Turkey and into northern Syria this weekend&period; According to recent reports&comma; they handed over all their weapons shortly after crossing the border&period;&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&ldquo&semi;Seventy-five new fighters trained in a camp near the Turkish capital entered Aleppo province between Friday night and Saturday morning&comma;&rdquo&semi; said Rami Abdel Rahman&period;&nbsp&semi;Rahman serves as director for the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights&comma; a US-backed monitoring group and rebel faction&period; &nbsp&semi;&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The Pentagon has declined to answer questions&comma; saying only&comma; &ldquo&semi;We won&rsquo&semi;t get into details on where and when &lpar;US-trained rebels&rpar; enter the fight for operational security reasons&period;&rdquo&semi;&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>We know the report is not a rumor&comma; however&comma; because it was confirmed by Hassan Mustafa&period; Mustafa is a spokesman for Division 30&comma; a US-backed unit to which some of those 75 rebels were deployed&period;&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Mustafa would not elaborate about weapons or supplies&comma; but told AFP that &ldquo&semi;their training in Turkey lasted two months and they went directly to the front lines with Daesh&period; They are now in the town of Tal Rifaat&period;&rdquo&semi;&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>According to Rahman&comma; the rebels entered Syria with light weapons&period; They passed through the Bab al-Salama border point in a convoy of cars under air cover from a US-led coalition that had been carrying out air strikes against ISIS in Syria and Iraq&period;&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>That same spot in the border has become a vital gateway for supplies and fighters&comma; making it increasingly vulnerable to attacks by ISIS jihadists&period;&nbsp&semi;Rahman said that a majority of the newly trained rebels were sent to Division 30&period; The others were deployed to help Suqur al-Jabal&comma; a group whose name means &ldquo&semi;Falcons of the Mountain&period;&rdquo&semi; &nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Before this newest batch of fighters&comma; the &dollar;500 million&comma; US-led military training program in Turkey had managed to train only about 60 Syrian rebels to fight ISIS jihadists&period; The program was designed to train over 5&comma;000 and has come under fire as an unnecessary expense&period;&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The training base was attacked by Al-Nusra Front &lpar;Syrian version of al-Qaida&rpar; a few months ago and more than 12 Division 30 soldiers were killed or captured&period;&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Since then&comma; the US has utilized air power to help the beleaguered soldiers push back Nusra&period; US officials fear that Russia may attack US-backed rebels fighting the Assad regime&comma; leading to a confrontation with forces fighting ISIS&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Reports published earlier this week claim that members of Division 30 &ldquo&semi;betrayed US and handed weapons over to al-Qaeda&rsquo&semi;s affiliate in Syria&rdquo&semi; shortly after re-entering the country&period;&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&ldquo&semi;A strong slap for America&hellip&semi;the new group from Division 30 that entered yesterday hands over all of its weapons to Jabhat al-Nusra after being granted safe passage&comma;&rdquo&semi; said Abu Fahd al-Tunisi&comma; a member of Nusra&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Division 30 commander Anas Ibrahim Obaid told Nusra that he tricked the coalition into giving him weapons&period; &ldquo&semi;He promised to issue a statement&hellip&semi;repudiating Division 30&comma; the coalition&comma; and those who trained him&comma;&rdquo&semi; tweeted another member of Nusra&period;&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;

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