Dozens of US-trained fighters cross into Syria

SEVENTY-FIVE US-trained Syrian rebels have reportedly crossed into northern Syria, days after their beleaguered training programme was criticised as a “joke”.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a monitoring group, said yesterday that the fighters had entered Aleppo province between Friday night and Sunday morning.

Armed with light weapons, the group’s passage from Turkey reportedly took place under air cover from the American-led coalition that has bombed Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil).

Most of the newly trained fighters were deployed to Division 30, the main unit for US-trained fighters, while others went to support a group called Suqur al-Jabal (Falcons of the Mountain), according to the monitors.

The Pentagon’s $500 million (£300 million) Turkey-based training programme has fallen well short of expectations. Announced in June 2014 as Isil seized swathes of Iraq, it took almost a year to get off the ground and until recently had produced only 54 out of the 5,000 fighters it intended to train within a year.

A top US general told Congress last week that only four or five Syrian rebels trained under the programme were still fighting in Syria.

Kelly Ayotte, a Republican Senator, said the low number of fighters being trained was a “joke”.

Experts said the piecemeal continuation of the US programme is indicative of the White House’s desire to stay out of Syria’s voracious war.

“This programme has always been more about public relations than foreign policy. It is a way of dealing with the embarrassment of not having a policy on such an escalating conflict,” said Peter Harling, an analyst for the International Crisis Group. “This response amounts to more of the same.”

US officials declined to elaborate. “We won’t get into details on where and when [US-trained fighters] enter the fight for operational security reasons,” said a Pentagon spokesman.