Capture could hamstring already minuscule force

Al-Qaida kidnaps commander of U.S. trained fighters.

BAGHDAD — The commander of a group of Syrian fighters trained by the United States has been kidnapped by al-Qaida’s affiliate in Syria, his group said in a statement Thursday.

The commander, Nadeem Hassan, and seven of his fighters were taken by the Nusra Front, a rival of the Islamic State in Syria, as they were returning from a meeting in Turkey.

A contingent of 54 fighters from Hassan’s group, known as Division 30, are the only ones who have graduated from a Pentagon program to train Syrian rebels to fight the Islamic State in Syria. One the fighters taken with Hassan was his deputy, Farhan Al-Jasem, who commands the fighters who graduated from the U.S. training program.

The reported kidnapping is likely to be a new blow to the troubled program. If it turns out that all seven of Hassan’s kidnapped comrades were trainees, then there will be only 47 fighters left in Syria from the Pentagon’s training program.

The U.S. trainees were expecting to take on a more central role in Syria now that the United States and Turkey say they are planning to try to sweep Islamic State fighters from a northern segment of the country, with Syrian insurgents as their ground force.

A Pentagon spokeswoman, Cmdr. Elissa Smith, would not say if any trainees of its program had been taken in Syria.

“While we will not disclose the names of specific groups involved with the Syria Train and Equip program, I can confirm that there have been no New Syrian Force personnel captured or detained,” she said, referring to the Pentagon’s name for militias organized to fight the Islamic State in Syria.

Working with the Americans can make insurgent fighters a target for hardline jihadists. Insurgents have complained that the United States is asking them to take new risks to fight the Islamic State, diverting their attention from their battle against Syrian President Bashar Assad’s government forces without offering corresponding benefits and protection.

In an interview shortly before he returned to Syria from Turkey this week, Hassan had fretted that the Pentagon had yet to provide night-vision goggles that he had requested. He said some fighters were threatening to quit because he could not pay for their expenses. He also said his fighters had received assurances that U.S. warplanes would protect them if they were attacked by government forces, not just the Islamic State militants they were slated to fight.

Hassan said he had asked U.S. trainers “if they are going to protect us.” The reply, he said, fell short of expectations: “Our government still hasn’t announced anything that includes fighting the Assad regime.”

The abduction of Hassan underscored the vulnerability of the Syrian insurgents, and their U.S. trainers’ inability to protect them even a relatively secure town just a few miles from the Turkish border.

Abu Mahmoud, another insurgent commander, said in April that he had decided not to join the Pentagon program. He said he would happily fight the Islamic State after stopping Assad’s forces from bombarding insurgent areas. Reached in Idlib province Thursday, he said Hassan’s abduction had been predictable.

“I’m not blaming the Americans only, for choosing the wrong people and putting them in the wrong position,” said Abu Mahmoud, who uses a nom de guerre for safety. “I also blame these commanders.”

He added: “Those people can’t even protect themselves - how can they operate inside Syria against the Islamic groups? How can you drive your car to a place where you know that you don’t have enough fuel?”

The Pentagon program has struggled to recruit Syrian insurgents, many who are reluctant because they don’t want to be diverted from their fight against the Syrian government, and because the U.S. vetting process is so strict. Hassan said in an interview Tuesday that of the 1,200 volunteers he had gathered for the program, 125 started the training and only 54 completed it.