Reports: US-trained rebels enter Syria from Turkey

The rebel fighters reportedly entered Aleppo province between Friday night and Saturday morning [AP] RELATED Write a comment Maestro Le what a joke, enter syria to fight along isil or fight against isil? usa better stop taking people for stupid. same russia will also enter syria to fight isil. no problem right? when rebel come to fight isil it is ok with usa, but when russia want to come and fight isil it is a provocation because isil is usa. what a shame. THE PEST I think the US is inflating the numbers, AGAIN. I'd be surprised if they even have half a platoon, most likely ill trained and undisciplined. I hope they issued them running shoes, they will need them once the firefight begins. What a waste of my taxes. Hamed Kowidar Hahahah what a joke MillerNmiller27 Shows America still has a slight bit of influence in Turkey, (at least for show). Turkey clearly supports ISIL and is only interested in killing Kurds. JasonEnzoD Great. Now, when they have a break from fighting ISIS, the US trained rebels can fight Assad's troops, who, when they are not fighting ISIS, can fight the US trained rebels. Thein Maung and with the Australians doing bombing raids into Syria, how would they be able to differentiate one from the other, likewise the Russians and last but not least the US Pilots - very interesting, Assad being that smart, will let the US trained rebels do the dirty work for him and leave the Australians to bomb the US trained rebels - very interesting knowing the mess the US eventually lands into. Talk about a Comedy of Errors!!!!! THE PEST how long till they desert to ISIL? Yet another US failed venture into mindless foreign policy. FEATURED A batch of 75 rebels newly trained by US and coalition forces in Turkey to fight the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group have entered northern Syria, according to a monitoring group. The rebels had entered Syria in a convoy of a dozen cars with light weapons and ammunition, under air cover from the US-led coalition that has been carrying out strikes against ISIL in Syria and Iraq, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Sunday. "Seventy-five new fighters trained in a camp near the Turkish capital entered Aleppo province between Friday night and Saturday morning," Rami Abdel Rahman, director of the Syrian Observatory, said. RELATED: US-trained Syrian fighters refusing to fight He said the rebels crossed through the Bab al- Salama border point, the main gateway for fighters and supplies heading into Aleppo province. That supply route has been increasingly targeted by ISIL fighters seeking to cut off support to rival rebels. Abdel Rahman said the rebels had deployed to support two US-backed units, with most assigned to Division 30 - the main unit for US-trained fighters - and others to a group called Suqur al-Jabal (Falcons of the Mountain). Aleppo province has been the scene of fierce fighting for months between government forces and opposition groups [EPA] Before the fresh batch, the US-led train-and-equip programme had only managed to vet and train about 60 rebels to fight ISIL. The $500m programme run out of Turkey has been fraught with problems, with more than a dozen of those already deployed with Division 30 either killed or kidnapped by al-Qaeda's Syria affiliate, The Nusra Front. The Syrian Observatory also said pro-government forces and opposition fighters had agreed to begin a ceasefire from mid-day on Sunday in three battleground districts. The truce covers the two remaining villages in Idlib province in the northwest still in government hands and the opposition fighters' last stronghold near the Lebanese border, the town of Zabadani. "Fighters stopped military operations early this morning, but the official ceasefire will begin at noon (0900 GMT)," Abdel Rahman said. The developments came a day after John Kerry, the US secretary of state, said that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad must step down, but not necessarily immediately, upon reaching a settlement to end the country's civil war. Speaking after talks in London with Philip Hammond on Saturday, British foreign secretary, Kerry said he was prepared to negotiate to achieve a solution but asked whether Assad was. "For the last year and a half we have said that Assad has to go but how long, what the modality is ... it doesn't have to be on day one or month one or whatever," Kerry said. "There's a process by which all the parties have to come together and reach an understanding of how this can be achieved." Source: Agencies