That program was widely considered a failure, and on Friday, the Defense Department announced it was abandoning the goal of a U.S.-trained Syrian force, instead opting to equip established groups to fight IS. The news comes after critics slammed the program once it emerged that it had produced a minuscule number of U.S.-trained, anti-Islamic State forces, which were very vulnerable to attack.
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CIA-backed rebels in Syria, who had begun to put serious pressure on President Bashar Assadâs forces, are now under Russian bombardment with little prospect of rescue by their American patrons, US officials say.
A USA official told CNN that the program is being suspended as the administration looks for other ways to support moderate opposition in Syria.
The New York-based group said the development “raises grave concerns” that Russian Federation is either dropping the cluster bombs itself as part of its almost two weeks of airstrikes in Syria or is providing them to the Syrian military.
Read Saturday’s Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for full details. The Pentagon will provide leaders of these groups with ammunition and communications gear while vetting them for links to terrorism, and then call on them to identify and pinpoint Islamic State targets for airstrikes.
A Pentagon spokesman said the USA would monitor the groups’ progress and provide them with air support.
But on Friday, Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook said Moscow had filed an appropriate response.
Speaking at a news conference in London, Carter admitted he had been dissatisfied with the previous training program, and said: “We have devised a number of different approaches”.
The administration said it has drawn on lessons learned from Syrian Kurdish forces that drove the Islamic State from Kobani, a town along the Syrian border with Turkey, with the help of coalition airstrikes. “The war against Daesh and defeating its dangers is possible if the opposing parties against Daesh, among them Russians, work together properly”, GCC Secretary General Abdullatif al-Zayani said at an event in Abu Dhabi, referring to IS by its Arabic acronym.
Soon after returning to Syria, the first group was attacked by an al-Qaeda affiliate and dispersed.
Other US officials interviewed spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.
According to the Kremlin’s spin doctors, even the elements are on Russia’s side when it comes to its campaign against what the government insists is “ISIS, and other terrorist groups”.
“I remain convinced that a lasting defeat of ISIL in Syria will depend in part on the success of local, motivated, and capable ground forces”, he said. The United States president said his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, “doesn’t distinguish between Isil [Isis] and a moderate Sunni opposition that wants to see Mr Assad go”.
The Pentagon said that Russian Federation and the United States are expected to hold military-to-military talks on Syria this weekend.
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Iranian lawmaker Esmail Kosari said Hamedani had played an important role preventing rebel fighters seizing the capital Damascus earlier in Syria’s conflict, and had returned for a few days because of his deep knowledge of the country.
