US-armed rebels overrun

A Syrian rebel group that emerged last year as the United States’ most important ally within the armed opposition announced its dissolution yesterday after losing scores of fighters and USsupplied advanced weaponry in an assault by al Qaeda affiliates.

Harakat Hazm, which last year became the first Syrian rebel group to be given US anti-tank missile systems, made the announcement after fighters from the al Qaeda-affiliated Nusra Front overran its last major base in northern Syria.

The group said that its remaining fighters would join the Levant Front, a coalition of Islamists based in Aleppo who have far less moderate views on Syria’s future.

The development comes as a grave blow for Western efforts to strengthen moderate, secular rebel groups in Syria against Islamic State.

US officials said on Saturday that an American-backed programme to train and equip carefully vetted moderate rebels would begin in Turkey in four to six weeks.

Hazm fighters were to have been part of that programme. The group formed last year. However, US backing proved a curse as much as a blessing to Hazm as more extreme Islamist groups came to the fore. The Nusra Front began attacking Hazm last October, denouncing it as an enemy for co-operating with the US. Commanders complained that they had received enough support to make them targets but not enough to defend themselves.

The Nusra Front overran Base 46, a Hazm-controlled military stronghold west of Aleppo, on Saturday.

It was the second Hazm base to be overrun by Nusra fighters in the past month.

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