Pentagon denies allegations US-trained New Syrian Forces defected

The Pentagon on Wednesday emphatically denied allegations that any recent graduates of its much-criticized train-and-equip program to combat the Islamic State in Syria had defected or that weaponry it supplied them had fallen into the hands of an al Qaeda affiliate.

Navy Capt. Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman, said the Defense Department was in contact with the 70 fighters — the second group of graduates to return to the battlefield following US-led training.

“It’s patently false that there have been New Syrian Forces defections or weapons turned over to Al Nusra Front,” Davis said. “… The folks that are part of the New Syrian Forces are all accounted for, as are their weapons.”

The denial came after some media outlets reported that the US-aligned moderate rebel group Division 30 had launched an investigation into the disappearance of one of its commanding officers, Anas Ibrahim Abu Zayed. The group was investigating reports that some of the 70 recent New Syrian Forces program graduates who were reinserted into the war in Syria over the weekend had handed over US-provided weaponry to Nusra Front

Source: MENA