Though an official announcement on the matter has not been made yet, reports are emerging that the Pentagon has suspended the “train and equip” program meant to create a new faction of “pro-US” Syrian rebels, which has been dubbed the New Syrian Forces (NSF).
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After initial, forceful denials last week that any of the approximately 70 in the second class of rebels had lost any of their equipment, U.S. Central Command said on Friday that the unit had handed over six pick-up trucks and a portion of their ammunition-amounting to “roughly 25 percent of their issued equipment”. The group’s commander, who has not been trained by the United States or coalition forces, planned to move them to another town and was contacted by a militant intermediary.
On Monday, Col. Pat Ryder, a Centcom spokesman, told reporters that though a few of the rebels the commander oversaw were trained by the United States, the commander himself did not participate in the US training program.
Earlier in the week, Centcom had denied social media and news reports that a transfer of equipment had taken place by what it calls New Syrian Forces.
Reuters reports that the incident points to problems within the Syrian rebel forces.
It’s the latest embarrassment for the $500-million train and equip program, which was organized to stiffen resistance to the Islamic State militant group.
Other lawmakers and analysts have criticized virtually every aspect of the training program, from how Syrian candidates are vetted to how they are trained and whether the U.S.-led air campaign provides sufficient protection once the American-trained troops are back in their homeland.
The new revelations angered American military leaders. That suggests that those who did graduate from the program then returned to Syria and reported to the rejected commander.
“But for those of us who opposed the Syria train and equip program from the start, our predictions that our assistance would end up aiding mortal enemies of the USA like al Qaeda are now coming true”.
The following day, the Syrian commander relocated the NSF fighters to a new location inside Syria.
USA officials say the leading option is to do away with the idea of stand-alone fighting units and embed small numbers of trained fighters with existing Arab opposition groups in eastern Syria.
It marks one of the first times the US has admitted that its equipment had fallen into the jihadist group’s hands.
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“The coalition’s train and equip program does everything possible to carefully screen participants in the program and to monitor their equipment”, he said. USA officials had said they would not account for the fighters once they entered Syria. “This is a battlefield situation in which the moderate and vetted opposition continues to face threats on multiple fronts, including from various extremist groups”.
