Kidnapping of Pentagon-Trained Fighters in Syria Is New Hurdle for U.S. Effort

By KARAM SHOUMALI, ANNE BARNARD and ERIC SCHMITT JULY 30, 2015

ANTAKYA, Turkey — A Pentagon program to train moderate Syrian insurgents to fight the Islamic State has been vexed with problems of recruitment, screening, dismissals and desertions that have left only a tiny band of fighters ready to do battle.

This tiny band, 54 in all, suffered perhaps the most destructive problem yet on Thursday: Its leader, deputy and at least five others were abducted in Syria, just inside the border with Turkey where they had been training. The abductions were carried out not by the Islamic State but by the Nusra Front, an affiliate of Al Qaeda that is another Islamist extremist byproduct of the four-year-old Syrian civil war.

The abductions starkly illustrate the challenges confronting the Obama administration as it seeks to marshal local insurgents to fight the Islamic State, which it views as the biggest threat in the region.

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The biggest kidnapping prize on Thursday was the leader of the trainees, a Syrian Army defector who had been responsible for recruiting a pool of 1,200 rebels to the program.

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