Nusra Front accused of abducting head of Division 30 and several other fighters, who made up the team trained and equipped by the US. By Nabib Bulos.

Al Qaeda-linked fighters have abducted the leader of a U.S.-backed rebel group in north Syria, opposition sources and a monitoring group said, but the Pentagon cast doubt on the reports.

A Pentagon program to train moderate Syrian insurgents to fight the Islamic State has been vexed by problems of recruitment, screening, dismissals and desertions that have left only a tiny band of fighters ready to do battle. Those fighters—54 in all... By Karam Shoumali, Anne Barnard, Eric Schmitt.

In a stretch of desert in the north of Jordan, a small makeshift city has sprung from the sand. Za'atari refugee camp, which is run jointly by the Jordanian Government and UNHCR, the UN's refugee agency, sprawls out across an area of nearly two square miles. By Megan Specia.