US-trained Syrian forces surrender weapons to Nusra Front

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – The US army announced Friday that the New Syrian Forces trained by the US surrendered their weapons and military equipment to the Al-Qaida offshoot al-Nusra Front.

“US Central Command was notified at approximately 1 p.m. today that a commander of a New Syrian Forces element operating in Syria surrendered some of his unit's Coalition-issued equipment to a suspected al-Nusra Front intermediary purportedly in exchange for safe passage within their operating area,” the US Central Command statement read.

It added: "Today the NSF unit contacted Coalition representatives and informed us that on Sept. 21-22 they gave six pick-up trucks and a portion of their ammunition to a suspected al-Nusra Front intermediary, which equates to roughly 25 percent of their issued equipment," said Col. Patrick Ryder, US Central Command spokesperson.

“In light of this new information, we wanted to ensure the public was informed as quickly as possible about the facts as we know them at this time," Ryder said.  "We are using all means at our disposal to look into what exactly happened and determine the appropriate response."

Earlier this week, Al Nusra Front Tweeted an image of a Coalition-issued rifle and claimed that the newest NSF members had handed over all their weapons upon re-entering Syria last week.

Central Command conducted an analysis of the image depicted in the Tweet and determined the claim to be false.  This determination was based on NSF members reporting that all personnel and equipment were under NSF control and because the tweeted image was an old picture repurposed from the Facebook page of a previously deployed NSF fighter from a different training class, the statement read.

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