Pentagon Scraps Syria Train-and-equip, Favors New Program

The Pentagon will end its faltering program to train a moderate Syrian rebel force to battle the Islamic State, shifting instead to a plan to support already existing tribal and other forces, a senior US defense official told USA TODAY on Friday.

The change reflects the failure of the current approach, which has produced only a handful of combat-ready moderate rebels and drawn widespread criticism in Congress.

“I remain convinced that a lasting defeat of ISIL in Syria will depend in part on the success of local, motivated, and capable ground forces”.

According to reports, many newly United States trained rebels had surrendered themselves to rival groups as soon as they cross to the Syrian border.

The Obama administration is shutting down the Pentagon’s beleaguered and dismally unsuccessful $500 million program to train and equip Syrian rebels to fight against ISIS. Several dozen opposition fighters already at the training sites are likely to complete their instruction – learning to help call in allied airstrikes and operating 122-millimeter mortars – and they will be placed in opposition groups in Syria to enhance their combat effectiveness, officials said.

Yet that program is relatively modest when compared to what the Pentagon one once promised, and rebels expressed little hope that there was more robust US support in store.

The program involved recruiting and vetting new rebels, pulling them out of Syria for training in Turkey or Jordan and re-inserting them as an infantry force into Syria.

The change in United States strategy came as IS fighters seized villages close to the northern Syrian city of Aleppo from rival insurgents, a monitoring group said.

The new program will “focus on equipping and enabling”, the Pentagon said.

“Right now, I think given the complexities of the situation, we’re going to take sort of an operational pause” in the train and equip program, Wormuth said.

Seeking to underline the dangers of the Russian operation, USA officials said four Russian cruise missiles fired from a warship in the Caspian Sea had crashed in Iran which drew a swift denial from Russia that the rockets hit their targets.

“President Obama has been clear that we intend to continue our efforts to degrade and destroy ISIL in Syria”, the official said, using the administration’s preferred acronym for the Islamic State group.

ABC News also learned that rebel groups will be provided with ammunition, though it does not appear that weapons are included.

Numerous weapons and vehicles provided to the first group of Syrian rebels quickly fell into the hands of enemy forces, such as the al Qaeda-backed Al Nusra Front.