Weapons originally
supplied by the US and intended for moderate allies in Syria have been hijacked by
jihadist online forum in the country's northern al Qaeda heartland. In a snapshot
of the disastrous outcomes and thwarted ambitions of the West's six-year effort
in Syria, an M16 assault rifle -- whose serial number suggests it was
originally supplied as part of a US-taxpayer-funded effort to defeat extremists
in the region -- was offered to CNN by a resident of the city of Idlib over the
encrypted messaging app Telegram.
The vendor claimed the weapon originally
belonged to one of the more prominent and costly failures by the US to help
Syrian moderate rebels combat ISIS and other extremists. In a Telegram message
exchange with CNN posing as a purchaser, the vendor said the weapon came from
"Division 30" -- part of an elaborate $41 million dollar effort to
train and equip elite rebels to tackle jihadists.
Source: CNN
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