Syrian Rebel Commander Who Gave Equipment to Al Nusra Not US-Trained
U.S.-trained rebels turned over 6 vehicles and ammo to the fighters.
— -- The Syrian rebel commander -- head of a group that was armed and trained by the United States who gave equipment to the Al Nusra terror group -- had not received any U.S training himself, officials said.
Those are some of the new details to emerge after U.S. Central Command reversed itself this past Friday and acknowledged that graduates from its program to train moderate Syrian rebels to fight ISIS had in fact turned over some of their American-issued gear to the al Qaeda-linked group.
Earlier in the week, Centcom had denied social media and news reports that a transfer of equipment had taken place by what it calls New Syrian Forces.
But with new information provided by the rebel commander, Centcom admitted that six vehicles and ammunition had been given to Al Nusra fighters for the safe passage of the 71 fighters who had just re-entered Syria.
Centcom said the gear transferred to Al Nusra amounted to 25 percent of the equipment provided to the second group to graduate from its training program.
Col. Pat Ryder, a U.S. Central Command spokesman, told ABC News that the second group of about 70 graduates from the program entered Syria on the morning of September 20. Later that morning, about 30 of the fighters rejoined the Syrian opposition group they had belonged to prior to receiving training by the U.S. in Turkey. The commander of the larger opposition group did not participate in the U.S. training program, but he and his group had been vetted by the United States.
On September 21, a day after establishing a headquarters at an undisclosed town in northern Syria, the rebel commander began relocating his American-trained fighters to a different town.
Ryder said that according to information provided to Centcom by the commander of the rebel group he “had been contacted by a suspected Al Nusra Front intermediary and told that unless he surrendered some of his NSF equipment, his unit would be ambushed en route to the new location.”
On Tuesday, en route to the new town the rebel commander transferred the six American-provided weapons and transferred to the control of “representatives of the suspected ANF intermediary.”
The following day, the commander returned to that location to provide some of his ammunition to the same intermediary.
The commander notified Centcom this past Friday that he had exchanged the materials to gain safe passage for his fighters.
“We will look at what we can do to prevent such a situation in the future,” said Ryder. "But given the complexity of the battlefield it is not possible to eliminate all risk. We are using all means at our disposal to look into what exactly happened and determine the appropriate response.”
Ryder said the shifting complexities of the Syrian battlefield mean moderate opposition groups vetted by the U.S. face threats on multiple fronts from various extremists groups like ISIS and the Al Nusra Front.
“It is important to be clear eyed about the conditions in which these forces operate, the groups working against them, and the need to overcome the challenges they have encountered and will continue to face,” said Ryder. .
Ryder said there are no indications that any of the 71 U.S.-trained fighters have defected or left the program.
Overall, the program still has between 80 and 90 fighters in the program when the remaining group from the first class of 54 graduates is included. But the number is still far short of the projected 5,400 fighters the U.S. and its allies hoped to train in the program’s first 12 months.
“We recognize the challenges faced by T&E program graduates and will continue to review and adapt the program to make them as effective as possible,” said Ryder.
The White House is looking at new options that will soon revamp the training program. U.S. officials say the leading option is to do away with the idea of stand-alone fighting units and embed small numbers of trained fighters with existing Arab opposition groups in eastern Syria. The U.S. trained fighters would provide intelligence, command and control and assist in airstrike targeting.