US Should Reconfigure Program to Train-Equip 'Moderate' Syrian Rebels

© AFP 2023 / ABD DOUMANYRebel fighters who recently joined the Failaq al-Rahman brigade take part in a training session with fake weapons at a camp in Syria's rebel-held Eastern Ghouta region before being sent to the front lines
Rebel fighters who recently joined the Failaq al-Rahman brigade take part in a training session with fake weapons at a camp in Syria's rebel-held Eastern Ghouta region before being sent to the front lines - Sputnik International
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The United States needs to overhaul or abandon its much-maligned train-and equip program in Syria, which has fallen short of expectations because of faulty operational design and its penchant for fueling Islamic extremism, experts told Sputnik on Friday.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — Earlier this week, the US Department of Defense acknowledged that the Obama administration's plan to train and equip a moderate Syrian fighting force to defeat ISIL was not working.

In 2014, the US Congress approved $500 million to train and equip about 5,400 Syrian rebels by the end of 2015 to combat ISIL. However, US military officials recently revealed that the Pentagon has trained about 60 fighters, of which only four or five are actually engaged in combat.

"The United States should scrap its train-and-equip program," University of Oklahoma Professor and renowned expert on Syria Joshua Landis told Sputnik on Friday. "The US strategy to develop a ‘moderate’ Free Syrian Army presence in Syria has failed."

All the US-equipped rebel militias were defeated, Landis argued, as arms provided by Washington and US Gulf State allies fell into the hands of al-Qaeda and other Islamist militant groups.

The United States sent in and sacrificed 60 soldiers, who were killed by al-Qaeda, the Syrian expert claimed, so the Obama administration could maintain its talking point that it had a plan to replace the Islamic State with moderates.

"There is no reason to keep on beating a dead horse," Landis opined.

Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies Professor Daniel Serwer told Sputnik that the Pentagon certainly needs to revamp its strategy and tactics to more effectively bolster an anti-Islamic State Syrian fighting force in a hostile territory.

"I think the Americans have to reexamine and reconfigure their train-and-equip program for sure," Serwer argued. "The question is whether you can get Syrians to fight the Islamic State without also targeting the [President Bashar Assad] regime. It looks like the answer to that question is no."

The United States will continue its train-and-equip program aimed at assisting Syrian rebels to fight the Islamic State, US State Department deputy spokesperson Mark Toner told journalists on Friday. - Sputnik International
Against All Odds: US to Continue Train-Equip Program for Syrian Rebels
Serwer added the United States also needs to rethink its objectives as well as its mode of operations, which consists of "injecting a small group of fighters separately together into a dangerous environment," while leaving them isolated.

"The Americans have been strict about trying to prevent attacks on the [Assad] regime… They have to drop that restriction if they want to recruit Syrian fighters," Serwer noted. "They also need to consider teaming their trainees with existing forces rather than keeping them separate."

Serwer also underlined that the $500million figure that has been mentioned represents the amount of money Congress has appropriated, not what has been actually spent on the train-and-equip program in Syria.

"I don’t know how much has been spent, but it is not likely more than a small fraction of that," he added.

Rebel fighters from the First Battalion under the Free Syrian Army take part in a military training on June 10, 2015, in the rebel-held countryside of the northern city of Aleppo - Sputnik International
US Сonsidering Reduction of Training Program for Syrian Rebels
On Friday, US State Department deputy spokesperson Mark Toner told journalists that the United States will continue the train-and-equip program in Syria. The comment came a day after a State Department official told reporters that Secretary of State John Kerry was disappointed in the program’s results.

On Wednesday, CENTCOM Commander General Lloyd Austin admitted to the US Senate Armed Services Committee that currently only four or five US-trained Syrian fighters were active against ISIL.

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