Kerry Shares US Lawmakers’ Dismay of Syrian Train-Equip Program

Secretary of State John Kerry shares the same level of disappointment with lawmakers on Capitol Hill disgusted by the meager results of a $500-million program designed to train and equip a moderate fighting force in Syria, a State Department official told reporters.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — Only four or five US-trained rebels are engaged in combat against ISIL in Syria, US Commander of Central Command (CENTCOM) General Lloyd Austin said at a Senate hearing on Wednesday, prompting Senator Jeff Sessions to call the program a "total failure," while drawing criticism from several other lawmakers.

At the outset of the program in 2014, the US Defense Department had envisioned 5,400 trained Syrian fighters by the end of 2015.

"He’s [Kerry] equally as disappointed as they [lawmakers] are that it hasn’t gotten off to a better start and hasn’t achieved the kind of outcomes and results that we had all hoped for," the official said on Thursday when asked about the failure of the train-and-equip program in Syria.

Kerry recognizes, the official added, that the training and equipping of moderate fighters in Syria was an "important component of the military strategy" to defeat the Islamic State.

In July, US Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter reported that 60 moderate Syrians had been trained as part of the $500-million train and equip program.

On Wednesday, Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Christine Wormuth announced that only 60 additional Syrian recruits were being trained.