Syrian rebel group leaves their HQ after clash with al-Qaida

Clashes between members of al-Qaeda's branch in Syria and a rebel faction in the country's north believed to have been trained by the U.S. and Turkey have stopped after the rebels abandoned their headquarters, activists said Aug. 1.

The al-Nusra Front meanwhile released a video showing one of the captured rebels saying that the men in the faction known as Division 30 were trained in Turkey by U.S. officers and sent back to Syria with money and weapons.

The fighting came a few days after the U.S. and Turkey announced the outlines of a deal to help rebels push Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) back from a strip of territory it controls along the Syrian-Turkish border, replacing it with more moderate rebels backed by Washington and Ankara.

Rami Abdurrahman, who heads the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said members of the Division 30 faction fled to a nearby area controlled by a Syrian Kurdish forces. Abu al-Hassan Marea, a Syrian activist who is currently in Turkey near the Syrian border, confirmed on Aug. 1 that Division 30 fighters have withdrawn from their headquarters.

Abdurrahman and Marea said Division 30 had less than 60 fighters and that on July 31 alone the group lost five fighters and 18 others were wounded.

A representative of Division 30 did not respond to written questions sent to the group's Facebook account.

On July 31night the al-Nusra Front said it attacked Division 30 and abducted some of its members, including its commander, because they were trained by the CIA and vowed in a statement to cut off "the arms" of the American government in Syria. During the fighting, U.S.-led coalition warplanes attacked the al-Nusra Front fighters according to activists.

On Aug....