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US Training Outside Forces to Fight ISIL ‘Was Never Going to Work’

© AP Photo / BRENDAN SMIALOWSKIA soldier waits to have his copy of DUTY: Memoirs of a Secretary of War by Robert M. Gates, signed by former Secretary Gates at the Pentagon January 16, 2014 in Washington, DC
A soldier waits to have his copy of DUTY: Memoirs of a Secretary of War by Robert M. Gates, signed by former Secretary Gates at the Pentagon January 16, 2014 in Washington, DC - Sputnik International
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According to former US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, the US military program of training indigenous fighters outside of a country and sending them back afterwards was doomed from the start.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — The US military program to train outside forces and later infiltrate them into the country to fight against the Islamic State (IS) was doomed to fail from the outset, former US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said on Wednesday.

"I think the idea of training indigenous fighters outside of a country and reinfiltrating them was probably never going to work," Gates told the Senate Armed Services Committee.

The US train and equip program for Syrian fighters included bringing fighters outside of Syria for training and reintegrating them into combat against the IS. The program was canceled by the Pentagon in early October after it failed to produce more than 60 fighters.

An unidentified photographer stands next to rebel fighters from Jaysh al-Islam (Army of Islam) holding a position behind a sand barrier on August 25, 2015, on the frontline in the Bashkoy area, on the northern outskirts of Aleppo, where opposition fighters are battling Syrian pro-government forces - Sputnik International
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Gates explained that the United States should provide weapons and training to tribes and ethnic groups "that have shown they are prepared to defend their own territory in ISIS [Islamic State]," even if they are not willing to fight outside of that territory.

The former US defense secretary cited the Iraqi Kurds as a successful example of this strategy.

In 2014, the United States allocated $500 million in their efforts to train and equip Syrian fighters against the IS.

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