Threat in Syria targets U.S.-allied rebels

KILIS, Turkey -- Al-Qaida's Syrian affiliate threatened to attack all U.S.-backed rebels entering the country, after the U.S.-led coalition launched airstrikes on the jihadists' positions in Syria in retaliation for the abduction of members of a rebel brigade trained by the Pentagon.

Meanwhile, Iraq's Kurdish regional government called on the Kurdistan Workers' Party to "withdraw" from Iraq's Kurdish territory Saturday to prevent civilian deaths during a campaign of Turkish airstrikes targeting the group.

The coalition's airstrikes came as the Nusra Front, the al-Qaida-linked group, announced the Thursday capture of Nadim al-Hassan, commander of the rebel group known as Division 30, which it said had received U.S. training and was acting on behalf of "agents of America" in Syria.

Syria's Sunni Muslims "will not accept" groups working for the United States, the statement from the Nusra Front said. The group also called on the rebels to abandon the U.S. as an ally and return to fighting in the name of Islam.

Division 30 includes about 60 Syrian fighters that the United States trained in recent months in Turkey and calls the New Syrian Force. They were sent into Syria two weeks ago to help build the moderate opposition to President Bashar Assad and participate in a new U.S.-Turkey effort to drive the Islamic State extremist group from northwest Syria.

U.S. officials have said that none of the newly trained fighters is among those abducted with al-Hassan, at a spot north of the Syrian city of Aleppo.

But they acknowledged that the capture of al-Hassan and the others was a blow to efforts of President Barack Obama's administration. The Nusra Front is one of the most powerful Syrian insurgent groups but is not allied with the Islamic State.

Activists said Saturday that clashes between members of the Nusra Front and Division 30 ended after the rebels abandoned their headquarters.

The Nusra Front, meanwhile, released a video showing one of the captured rebels saying that the men in Division 30 were trained in Turkey by U.S. officers and sent back to Syria with money and weapons.

Rami Abdurrahman, who heads the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said members of Division 30 fled to a nearby area controlled by a Syrian Kurdish militia. Abu al-Hassan Marea, a Syrian activist in Turkey near the Syrian border, confirmed Saturday that Division 30 fighters had withdrawn from their headquarters.

Abdurrahman and Marea said Division 30 had fewer than 60 fighters and that Friday the group lost five fighters and 18 others were wounded.

A representative of Division 30 did not respond to questions sent to the group's Facebook account.

Syrian activists posted images of what they said were coalition strikes on a Nusra Front command center in Azaz. In a statement posted online, the Nusra Front said the strikes "left a number of martyrs and wounded in our ranks."

The statement also claimed al-Hassan's capture and accused the U.S.-linked rebels of coordinating airstrikes on its positions in the area.

Pentagon officials said Thursday that none of the approximately 60 U.S.-trained fighters under al-Hassan's command were among those captured by the Nusra Front.

The U.S. training initiative, begun several months ago in Turkey, has had difficulty recruiting Syrian opposition members for a program that is funded to train 5,000 of them.

The first contingent of about 60 was sent into Syria on July 14, with new equipment and vehicles. U.S. officials said the fighters had pledged allegiance to a goal of fighting against the Islamic State, rather than becoming involved in the many other battles underway in the region.

In Iraq on Saturday, a statement from the office of Kurdish President Massoud Barzani said the Kurdistan Workers' Party "should withdraw its fighters from the Kurdish region so to ensure the civilians of Kurdistan don't become victim of that fighting and conflict."

The statement also condemned Turkey for bombing civilians, after reports that civilian homes were damaged in airstrikes in northwestern Iraq. The statement called on both sides to resume peace talks.

Sedar Sitar, an Iraq-based Kurdistan Workers' Party activist, said Turkish strikes destroyed at least six homes in the town of Zargel early Saturday, killing at least eight civilians and wounding 12. Turkey said Saturday that it had begun an investigation into the reported civilian deaths.

A Foreign Ministry statement said targets were attacked only after the military was fully satisfied that the areas were free of civilians. It also said the Kurdistan Workers' Party at times uses civilians as human shields.

Turkey launched airstrikes on Kurdish rebel camps in northern Iraq last month, its first such strikes since a peace process with the Kurdistan Workers' Party was started in 2012. The airstrikes began as the U.S. and Turkey announced the outlines of a deal to help push the Islamic State back from a strip of territory it controls along the Syrian-Turkish border, replacing it with more-moderate rebels backed by Washington and Ankara.

In Syria, meanwhile, the Kurdish militia there said the Turkish military has targeted them four times since July 24, calling such attacks "provocative."

The main Syrian Kurdish militia, known as the People's Protection Units, has been spearheading battles against the Islamic State, with air support from the U.S.-led coalition. The People's Protection Units has called on the U.S.-led coalition to clarify its stance regarding the Turkish strikes.

Information for this article was contributed by Erin Cunningham and Karen DeYoung of The Washington Post and by Vivian Salama, Bassem Mroue, Suzan Fraser and Salar Salim of The Associated Press.

A Section on 08/02/2015

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