A moderate Syrian rebel group, which is supported by the US, has released an image of its fighter posing with the decapitated head of an Assad regime soldier.

The controversial image has appeared online mere days after Russia made a public statement saying that there were no moderate rebel groups in Syria with whom one can cooperate to fight terror in the country.

Local reports said that the image was posted by the rebel fighters from the Free Syrian Army (FSA), who beheaded a Syrian soldier in Hama governate.

According to Al Masdar News, the moderate rebels posted the image online with the message that more of the Syrian soldiers will be beheaded in a similar manner.

The US-backed rebels last week had released a similar image from Homs, where they had posed with the decapitated heads of soldiers from a civilian-led National Defence Forces.

Last week, soon after President Bashar al Assad's visit to Moscow, Russia had said that the Syrian president was ready for talks with Syrian moderate rebels but it was " unable to single out the so-called moderate opposition."

On Friday, Russia president Vladimir Putin speaking at a political conference in Sochi on Friday, accused Western governments of double standards in their choice of groups to work with.

"Let's not play with words and divide the terrorists into moderate and not moderate," he said.

"I would like to understand what is the difference. Perhaps, some experts believe that moderate bandits behead people in moderate numbers or in some tender way," he had said.