US Carter: U.S. Remains Committed to Training Moderate Rebels in Syria

Russian Federation says the airstrikes it began last week are directed against the Islamic State group, as well as al-Qaida’s Syrian affiliates.

A military official quoted by Syria’s state-run SANA said Saturday that two F-16s from the U.S.-led coalition violated Syrian airspace and targeted civilian infrastructure in Aleppo. He says the work the US has done with the Kurds is a good example of an effective approach with a capable, motivated ground combat force.

Congress approved $500 million for the program but much of that is unspent. An official familiar with the program said Friday that the total is now close to $300 million.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to discuss the change publicly.

USA officials have said the new effort would focus more on embedding recruits with established Kurdish and Arab units, rather than sending them directly into front-line combat.

But after the news conference, a senior defense official said Carter had misspoken, and President Barack Obama would not be speaking. A second class yielded only a small number of new fighters, drawing criticism from US lawmakers who condemned the program as a joke and a failure.

“This problem, compounded by the administration’s immoral refusal to protect those we train from Putin’s bombs, could doom this new effort to the same failure as the previous one”, McCain said.

Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook said the new approach is aimed at improving US support for partners on the ground in Syria. “So we have devised a number of different approaches”.

The change makes official what those in the Pentagon and elsewhere in the administration have been saying for several weeks would most likely happen, particularly in the wake of revelations that the program at one point last month had only “four or five” trainees in the fight in Syria – a far cry from the plan formally started in December to prepare as many as 5,400 fighters this year, and 15,000 over the next three years.

Tom says that U.S.is moving to arm Arab and Kurdish fighters, who the USA believes are ready to try to retake the northern city of Raqqa, an Islamic State stronghold. The Pentagon will provide leaders of these groups with ammunition and communications gear while vetting them for links to terrorism, and then call on them to identify and pinpoint Islamic State targets for airstrikes.

Several major Syrian rebel forces in Aleppo, including hardline Islamic militias, are fighting both al-Assad and the Islamic State group. It also would streamline the vetting process created to weed out terrorist infiltrators.