Aftermath of Attack on Syrian Rebels Raising Training Questions

The Pentagon has said that it does not know the location of its recently deployed New Syrian Forces, despite pledging this week to support them if they come under attack.

While it remains unclear what happened to all of the U.S.-backed forces once the fighting stopped, defense officials say that at least some remain in Syria.

A total of 54 Syrian opposition fighters went into the country earlier this month after completing a training regimen at the beginning of July.

“The president certainly does have the expectation that the United States and our coalition partners learn from the significant challenges that we have encountered in trying to train, equip and empower the Syrian opposition fighters on the ground in Syria“, Earnest said.

“Division 30 was formed by the honorable sons of Syria to free their nation from Assad’s gangs and Daesh [Isis]”, and “Division 30 pledges before the Syrian people to commit to the principles under which it was formed and to not be dragged into any side battle with any faction, and that it has not fought and will not fight the Nusra Front or any other faction regardless of name or ideology”. Of those, at least one was killed last week and as many as five were captured by the Nusra Front militants who attacked the New Syrian Forces’ compound.

Asked if any of the 54 had returned to battle, Ryder said he would not divulge details on where individuals may be.

Saturday marked one year since the first U.S. airstrikes against the Islamic State.

One of the biggest problems facing U.S.-backed troops are attacks from al Nusra, a terrorist group affiliated with al Qaeda, experts said.

“I can’t think of many personalities who have been attacked for more reasons than Hillary Clinton”. However, they still have members that are being trained by the US.

The NSF are, in effect, a more highly trained element of the Division 30 rebel group, which operates in northern Syria and from which the trainees were pulled earlier this year.

Speaking with reporters at the Pentagon on Friday, U.S. Central Command spokesman Col. Pat Ryder refused to speculate how many NSF were still in the field and said that “we’re not doing a daily roll call” with them to get a head count. The vetting process is lengthy and is aimed at ensuring that the forces are willing and able to fight, are not considered insider threats and agree to focus the fight on Islamic State.

Davis said a second group of fighters is now undergoing training and indicated that they would become trainers themselves. The bulk of the costs are for Air Force operations, mainly airstrikes.