Syria’s Al-Qaeda affiliate Nusra Front abducted five more rebels believed to have been trained by the United States after raiding areas along the Turkish border in the past 24 hours, a monitoring group said Tuesday.
The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the militant group was now holding a total of 13 men from “Division 30,” a Syrian rebel unit that includes some fighters recently trained by the U.S. military.
It was not immediately clear whether the five men abducted overnight had been on the new U.S. military training programme or on an existing, separate CIA-led program.
On Friday, Nusra Front said in a statement it had detained a number of Syrian rebels trained by the United States and warned any others they should abandon the program.
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