Insight - Facing Islamic State in Syria, U.S.-trained rebels await more help

A rebel fighter fires an anti-tank missile towards forces loyal to Syria's President Bashar al-Assad in the Jabal al-Akrad area in Syria's northwestern Latakia province November 25, 2014. REUTERS/Alaa Khweled

GAZIANTEP, Turkey (Reuters) - Syrian rebel commander Abdulaziz says U.S. military training helped his men kill at least 15 Islamic State fighters in a recent battle near Aleppo. Three months earlier, a similar engagement had gone the other way, with two of his men killed.

But his group, the Mujahideen Army, does not know if more of its men will be sent for training, such is the uncertainty surrounding plans for expanding aid to the "moderate" rebels who the United States hopes will fight Islamic State in Syria.