75 US-trained rebels enter Syria from Turkey

Beirut

Seventy-five Syrian rebels trained to fight jihadists under a beleaguered US programme have crossed from Turkey into northern Syria, a US-backed rebel faction and a monitoring group 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 for Human Rights, said.

In Washington, the Pentagon declined to elaborate on the report.

"We won't get into details on where and when (US-trained rebels) enter the fight for operational security reasons," said a Pentagon spokesperson who declined to be named.

But Hassan Mustafa, spokesman for the US-backed Division 30 unit to which some of the rebels were deployed, confirmed the report.

"Their training in Turkey lasted two months and they went directly to the front lines with Daesh. They are now in the town of Tal Rifaat," Mustafa said via the Internet, using an Arabic acronym for the Islamic State (IS) group.

He said he could not comment on what sort of weapons or supplies the rebels had brought with them. 

According to Abdel Rahman, the group had entered 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 IS in Iraq and Syria. 

He said the rebels crossed through the Bab al Salama border point, the main gateway for fighters and supplies heading into Aleppo province.