MILITANT anti-government groups have been accused of exploiting displaced people in Syria by selling them aid supplies and recruiting members from a refugee camp in a region controlled by US forces.

Former residents of the Rukban camp have started to arrive in the historic city of Palmyra, which is being rebuilt after government forces retook control from Isis jihadists in 2017.

New arrivals have reported that they had been made to pay for tents, food and medicine — and that some had been coerced into joining the ranks of the Revolutionary Commando Army, an anti-government militia that claims to have been funded, armed and trained by the CIA and Saudi Arabia.