US scheme to train Syrian fighters a flop
Only four or five United Statestrained Syrian rebels are still fighting in Syria, a top US general has told Congress – a stark admission of setbacks to a fledgling military programme that critics have already pronounced a failure.
The US military began training in May for up to 5400 fighters a year, in what was seen as a test of US President Barack Obama’s strategy of having local partners combat Islamic State militants and keep US troops off the front lines.
But the programme was troubled from the start, with some of the first class of fewer than 60 fighters coming under attack from al Qaeda’s Syria wing, the Nusra Front, in their battlefield debut. Some were captured and killed, while others scattered.
US officials, speaking to Reuters on condition of anonymity, acknowledged that a review was under way that could result in scaling back and revamping the programme.
General Lloyd Austin, the head of the US military’s Central Command, told the Senate Armed Services Committee that at the current, slower than expected pace, the initial training targets were unrealistic.
Asked how many fighters were still in Syria, Austin said: ‘‘It’s a small number. The ones that are in the fight . . . we’re talking four or five.’’
Undersecretary of Defence for Policy Christine Wormuth told the committee that only 100 to 120 Syrian fighters were in training.
Wormuth said the Pentagon was considering options that included scaling back the programme’s goals to insert small numbers of US-trained rebels into larger units in northern Syria.
US officials said that option might significantly reduce the size of the programme, creating an ‘‘enabling’’ force that could, for example, help to call in US-led coalition air strikes.
Wormuth expressed disappointment, saying: ‘‘The programme is much smaller than we’d hope.’’
White House spokesman Josh Earnest said the fact that so few US-trained fighters were deployed ‘‘certainly raises legitimate questions about what kinds of changes need to be made to this programme’’.
Republican Senator Jeff Sessions, a Republican from Alabama, said: ‘‘We have to acknowledge that this is a total failure. It’s just a failure.’’
Obama’s critics have seized on the programme as evidence of a deeply troubled strategy in Syria, where a 41⁄ year civil war has killed about 250,000 people and caused nearly half of Syria’s prewar population of 23 million to flee, with thousands attempting to reach Europe.
The chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Republican Senator John McCain, roundly condemned Obama’s campaign against Islamic State militants in Syria and Iraq.
‘‘One year into this campaign, it seems impossible to assert that [Islamic State] is losing and that we are winning. And if you’re not winning in this kind of warfare, you are losing,’’ McCain said.