US says it will defend Syrian rebels with airpower

The United States announced on Monday that it will defend Syrian opposition fighters who received support through the US training and armament programme with airstrikes against any attacks by Syrian regime forces or the Daesh.

“We consider Syrian rebels who are trained and armed by the Pentagon our partners in the fight against Daesh ,” the spokesman for the National Security Council at the White House, Alistair Basque, said on Monday.

In a statement, Basque pointed out that the US-led international coalition forces “provide broad support for these forces whose mission is to fight Daesh, including a military support to protect them from any attacks.”

The White House spokesman refused to discuss details of the rules of engagement that state the conditions in which the coalition forces would be permitted to intervene in the fight against Daesh to protect Syrian partner factions, but stressed that the coalition will “take the necessary steps to ensure that these forces are capable of the successful implementation of their mission.”

Turkey, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Jordan previously welcomed the possibility of hosting, training and arming of Syrian rebels; but according to officials in the US administration the small number of volunteers who joined the programme were eventually trained in Turkey,.

Media reports said earlier that Al-Qaeda’s wing in Syria, Jabhat Al-Nusra last month kidnapped a group of Syrian opposition fighters presumed to be trained through the US training and armament programme.