After two days of denials, the Pentagon disclosed late Friday that a U.S.-trained and equipped proxy force in Syria had turned over some of its supplied weapons to an Al Qaeda affiliate.
U.S. officials said rebels told them a commander of a group of trained fighters gave six pickup trucks with mounted machine guns and a portion of their ammunition, or about 25% of their issued equipment, to Al Nusra Front in exchange for safe passage within their operating area in northern Syria.
The information “is very concerning and a violation of Syria train and equip program guidelines,” said Col. Patrick Ryder, spokesman of U.S. Central Command, which oversees the military effort in the Middle East.
The development was the latest embarrassment for the U.S. military’s $500-million program to train and equip 5,400 Syrian rebel fighters considered to be moderate to confront Islamic State extremists.
The plan has been beset with problems since it was announced by President Obama more than a year ago.
On Wednesday, there were reports and social media posts that a U.S.-backed commander, along with 70 fighters, had joined Al Nusra Front after receiving training and a cache of weapons in neighboring Turkey.
The Pentagon said at the time the claims were “patently false” and that “coalition-issued weapons and equipment are under the positive control” of the so-called New Syrian Force fighters.
Meanwhile, Al Nusra Front supporters uploaded a picture of assault rifles reportedly taken from the rebels.
At the time, Central Command said it determined the claim to be false because it conducted “an analysis” of the image and “the tweeted image was an old picture repurposed from” a rebel Facebook page.
Central Command also said that the rebel group told them all equipment was accounted for and there were no defections. The rebel group has not reported any defections, the Pentagon said.
“In light of this new information, we wanted to ensure the public was informed as quickly as possible about the facts as we know them at this time,” Ryder said. “We are using all means at our disposal to look into what exactly happened and determine the appropriate response.”
لمتابعة الخبر اضغط على موقع اضغط علىالرابط التالي
