The issue of pilot safety in Syrian airspace has come to the fore after Russian Federation stepped up its military involvement in the Syrian conflict, independently of the US-led coalition fighting the self-declared “Islamic State” (IS) militant group.
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The fighting is concentrated in Hama and the northern Idlib provinces, where a consortium of mainstream rebels as well as al-Qaida’s branch in Syria, the Nusra Front, are operating.
The Central Intelligence Agency runs a separate, covert programme that began in 2013 to arm, fund and train a moderate opposition to Syrian President Bashar Assad.
Future training will be greatly scaled back, with the apparent USA focus on providing weaponry to Kurdish, Arab and other rebel groups.
“I remain convinced that a lasting defeat of Daesh in Syria will depend in part on the success of local, motivated, and capable ground forces”, he said.
It also was unclear whether the Obama administration has committed to protecting the rebel units it will support if they are attacked by Syrian or Russian forces.
Mr. Carter was speaking at a press conference in London.
Russian Federation is increasing the number of air strikes against Islamic State in Syria, its defence ministry has said.
Administration officials said the new Pentagon approach focuses heavily on equipping and supporting Sunni Arab rebel groups that the USA military has been coordinating with in recent months as they, along with Syrian Kurdish rebels, take and hold ground east of the Euphrates River. Washington has been concerned that Moscow is not aiming exclusively at Daesh but at other rebel groups.
Russian Federation says it has hit 55 Islamic State (IS) group targets in Syria in 24 hours up until Saturday.
“You can make the case, if you look at Libya, look at what we did there – it’s a mess – if you look at Saddam Hussein with Iraq, look what we did there – it’s a mess – it’s [Syria] going to be same thing”, Trump said.
Administration officials sought to discourage the idea that the training effort was ending.
Wormuth, an Undersecretary of Defense for Policy, has said that the training programme has not been cancelled but is on “operational pause”, The Washington Post reported.
“This could be one of the great military coups of all time if they send them to our country – young, strong people and they turn out to be ISIS,” he said on Fox News over the weekend. It has produced fewer than 80 soldiers, many of whom had fled, been captured or killed in early fighting. An official familiar with the program said Friday that the total is now close to $300 million.
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US officials have publicly warned that they would have no other meetings with Russian Federation until Moscow responded with a written response to the draft, with any suggested changes or edits.
