“Moderate” Syrian Group Backed By US Disbands and Joins Islamists
The US has lost money, trained fighters, weapons and Toyota trucks to Islamists and ISIS in Syria and Iraq.
Another US-backed Syrian rebel group goes rogue.
Hazzm, a so-called moderate Syrian rebel group backed by the US, has decided to join an Islamist group.
The rebels announced the move on Twitter.
YNet News reported:
Hazzm, one of largest remaining non-jihadist Syrian rebel groups, decides to merge with Islamists rebels with which they have fought for weeks.
One of the main western-backed rebel groups announced on Sunday that it had dissolved itself and joined a larger Islamist alliance, weeks into a battle which saw it lose ground and men to more powerful al Qaeda insurgents.
The statement posted online said its fighters would join the Shamiyah Front, an alliance of Islamist brigades in Aleppo, to prevent further bloodshed.
The decision comes after heavy weekend fighting between it and the Nusra Front, al Qaeda’s official Syria wing. Both Hazzm, which is part of the Free Syria Army collection of mainstream rebel groups, and Nusra fight the government.
Hazzm released this statement online announcing the group was joining the Islamist Shamiyya Front.
