US plan to train and equip Syrian rebels losing ground

Main problem is finding enough recruits untainted by extremist affiliations or other flaws

The US military’s programme to train and equip thousands of moderate Syrian rebels is faltering, with fewer than 100 volunteers, raising questions about whether the effort can produce enough capable fighters quickly enough to make a difference in the war against Daesh.

The stated US goal is to train and equip 5,400 rebels per year, and military officials said last week that they still hope for 3,000 by year’s end. Privately, they acknowledge the trend is moving in the wrong direction.

On June 26, 2014, the White House said it was asking Congress for $500 million (Dh1.83 billion) for a three-year train-and-equip programme. The training, however, only got started in May after months of recruiting and vetting of volunteers.

That programme, together with a more advanced but also troubled parallel effort to rebuild the Iraqi army, is central to the US-led effort to create ground forces capable of fighting Daesh without involving US ground combat troops.

The Syria initiative is intended to enable moderate opposition forces to defend their own towns against the Daesh militants, not to form a national resistance army. Expectations for the Iraqis are much higher” the goal is to have them roll back Daesh and restore the Iraq-Syria border. the Central Command special operations commander who is heading the programme, wants volunteers with more than a will to fight.

“We are trying to recruit and identify people who ... can be counted on ... to fight, to have the right mindset and ideology,” and at the same time be willing to make combating Daesh their first priority, Defence Secretary Ash Carter told the House Armed Services Committee on June 17.

“It turns out to be very hard to identify people who meet both of those criteria,” Carter said.

Many Syrian rebel volunteers prefer to use their training to fight the government of President Bashar Al Assad, the original target of their revolution. While Daesh has been a brutal occupant of much of their country, the rebels see the extremists as fighting a parallel war.

Jennifer Cafarella, a Syria analyst at the Institute for the Study of War, doubts the viability of the training programme.

“It is simply difficult to acquire the number of Syrian rebels willing to participate in the training under current parameters,” she said.

Abdul Jabbar Abu Thabet, commander of Aleppo Swords Battalion, a moderate faction that is fighting both Al Assad’s forces and Daesh, said he believes the Americans are more interested in recruiting Syrian army defectors than moderate rebels.

He said he would no longer give Americans the names of training candidates from his group, after having done so once and not receiving a US response.