Syria conflict: New US-backed rebels cross from Turkey Published duration 20 September 2015 Related Topics Syrian civil war

image copyright Reuters image caption The US launched the training programme for moderate Syrian rebels in May

A group of 75 US-backed rebels has crossed into northern Syria from Turkey to fight jihadists, the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says.

The rebels crossed into Syria in 12 vehicles equipped with machine guns over the weekend, it added.

It comes days after a top US general said only a handful of rebels trained by the US were still fighting in Syria.

Republican politicians have branded the $500m (£323m) scheme to train and equip around 5,000 rebels a "total failure".

"Seventy-five new fighters trained in a camp near the Turkish capital entered Aleppo province between Friday night and Saturday morning," said the observatory's director, Rami Abdel Rahman.

The group entered the country in convoy under air cover from the US-led coalition, which has been targeting Islamic State (IS) militants in their strongholds in Syria and Iraq, he added.

image copyright AP image caption Gen Lloyd Austin faced a scathing response when he said only four or five US-trained rebels were still fighting

He said the newly-trained fighters have been deployed to fight alongside the so-called Division 30 - the main US-trained group, as well as another group called Suqur al-Jabal (Falcons of the Mountain).

There is no confirmation of the move from the US military.

Earlier this week, US Gen Lloyd Austin admitted to Congress that only four or five of the US-backed rebels were still fighting in Syria, prompting Republican senators to call the training programme a "joke" and "total failure".

Gen Austin, who heads the US military's Central Command (Centcom), also confirmed that 54 graduates of the programme were attacked by the al-Qaeda affiliate, al-Nusra Front, in northern Syria in July.

It is still not clear how many of the fighters fled and were captured or killed.

Gen Austin told Congress there was no way of meeting the goal of 5,000 recruits a year, but urged patience. Another defence official blamed the reason for low numbers on the vetting process used to recruit rebels.