The 10-month, $500 million US effort to train and equip moderate Syria had yielded a “small number” of fighters, Austin said, far short of the 15,000 planned over a three-year period.
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This is the US proxy force in Syria, by the numbers: Of the first class of 54 to graduate the USA train-and-equip program, exactly nine are now fighting in Syria, while 11 more members of the New Syrian Force – the Pentagon’s name for the group it hoped would become an effective anti-ISIS unit – are waiting outside the border to join the fight.
Testifying alongside Austin was Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Christine Wormuth, who said that there are now only 100-120 fighters undergoing training for a future deployment.
“Our partners, not us, are in the lead”.
Senate Armed Services Committee chairman Sen.
Austin Wright is a defense reporter for Politico.
No longer will the goal be to train 5,400 in a year.
“I’ve never seen a hearing that is as divorced from the reality of every outside expert” studying the war, McCain said.
Whether or not the U.S. Central Command was sugarcoating intelligence to create the appearance of progress in the fight against Islamic State militants, the command’s upbeat reports didn’t manage to convince the rest of the intelligence community, current and former officials say.
“We need to help establish safe zones inside Syria where refugees and displaced people can be secure”, McCain said.
Gen. Austin told the senators that the training program was always meant to be a “complement” to the airstrike campaign the USA is leading in Syria. This testimony came amid allegations that senior military officers manipulated reports about the progress of the fight against ISIL to paint a rosier picture.
Until now, the US has declined to say how many of that group of trained Syrian rebels remained in the fight. Deb Fischer, R-Neb., said the program’s collapse could have been predicted.
The USA military is coming under pressure because of setbacks in the battle against Islamic State, including a disastrous debut for a force of U.S.-trained Syrian rebels and the fall of the Iraqi city of Ramadi to the militant group earlier this year.
Austin, who has not been accused of any wrongdoing, told the Senate Armed Services Committee on Wednesday that his expectation is that he received “candid and accurate intelligence assessments from my staff”. When questioned Wednesday, Austin said he had “absolutely not” ever ordered such changes.
Austin also addressed the recent build-up of Russian troops in Syria, using another name for ISIS: “As you know they have been there all along but they are increasing their footprint”.
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Centcom said that Gen. Austin was actually referring to the “coordinating relationship” that U.S. Special Operators have with Syrian Kurdish forces. “There are no USA military forces on the ground in Syria, nor have we conducted any USA military training of indigenous Syrian forces in Syria”.
