[Iran Press TV] The United States Department of Defense has denied reports that its newest batch of trained Lions of Islam to fight inside Syria had defected with their weapons to an al-Qaeda affiliate.
"We believe those reports to be false," Pentagon front man Navy Capt. Jeff Davis told news hounds on Wednesday.
"Their weapons and equipment are also still under the control of those rebels," Davis claimed.
Reports said on Monday that a group of US-trained myrmidons, under the name of Division 30, had defected to the al-Qaeda-affiliated al-Nusra
...formally Jabhat an-Nusrah li-Ahli sh-Sham (Support Front for the People of the Levant), also known as al-Qaeda in the Levant. They aim to establish a pan-Arab caliphate. Not the same one as the Islamic State, though .. ...
Front in Syria.
The Lions of Islam had just "graduated" from the Pentagon's $500-million "train and equip" program in The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire....
Davis, however, said, "It's patently false that there have been defections or weapons turned over... we believe the claims to those effect to be untrue."
"We do have contact, we have communications with members of the group and our understanding from being in touch ... is that all are present and accounted for, as are their weapons," he added.
Al-Nusra Lions of Islam attacked the division's headquarters last month, killing five, wounding 18, and kidnapping some others.
In July, another batch of US-trained Lions of Islam had been hit hard by the terrorist group in Syria. The first trained group, made up of 54 myrmidons, was wiped out by al-Nusra soon after it returned to Syria in July.
The B.O. regime came under intense pressure since last week, when Army Gen. Lloyd J. Austin III, head of US Central Command, admitted the Pentagon's failure in its program to train and arm Syrian Lions of Islam to combat Daesh (ISIL) terrorists.
The general said on Wednesday that the program, that sought to train and arm 5,400 Lions of Islam to combat Daesh this year, yielded only "four or five" fighters in the field.
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