Did the gov’t exaggerate progress against Islamic State?

Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Christine Wormuth told the Senate Armed Services Committee that only between 100 and 120 Syrian fighters were in training.

The revelation sheds light on numbers that the Pentagon and U.S. Central Command have refused to provide the media for weeks, citing operational security. Austin vowed to take “appropriate action” if an investigation indicates that senior defense officials altered intelligence reports on the Islamic State and other militant groups in Syria to exaggerate progress being made against the terrorist groups.

SEN. FISCHER: General Austin, when [Secretary] Carter was here before this committee in July, he testified that there were only about 60 Syrian fighters that had been trained in our “train-and-equip” program and reinserted. From left are, McCain, the committee’s ranking member, Sen.

The number was revealed by Army Gen. Lloyd Austin, commander of U.S. Central Command, under grilling by senators at an Armed Services Committee hearing.

Only four or five U.S.-trained Syrian rebels were still fighting in Syria, a top general told Congress on Wednesday, a stark admission of setbacks to a fledgling military program that critics have already pronounced a failure. John McCain, R-Ariz.

Wormuth said the number of trainees in the program was “definitely smaller than expected” and attributed the low number of trainees to the stringent vetting standards being used by Centcom to prevent extremists from entering the program. The idea is to attach small numbers of trained fighters to larger established forces in northern Syria, where they will act as a link to USA warplanes overhead.

The Pentagon deployed the first class of 54 rebels into Syria in July. A day before the attack, two leaders of the American-backed group and several of its fighters were captured. And Austin’s revelation that it’s only a handful only further inflamed the lawmakers’ criticism. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., said about the training.

Austin told the panel that goal was not going to be met and that options are being explored about how to retool the program which was intended to train moderate Syrian rebels to fight ISIS.

“Indeed, this committee is disturbed by recent whistleblower allegations that officials at Central Command skewed intelligence assessments to paint an overly-positive picture of conditions on the ground”, McCain said.