Only 60 Syrian Fighters Trained So far, US Defence Chief Admits
Published 8 July 2015 (3 hours 15 minutes ago), Source
The U.S. plans to churn out thousands of Syrian fighters, purportedly to only battle the Islamic State group, have fallen far short of expectations.
The United States armed forces is training just 60 Syrian fighters to take on the Islamic State group, Defense Secretary Ashton Carter admitted Tuesday. In a downbeat concession before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Carter said, “This number is much smaller than we had hoped for at this point.”
When the training program was first confirmed in January, the Pentagon said it planned to train 15,000 Syrians over three years. The US$500 million program was expected to be one of the key pillars of U.S. President Barack Obama's long-term plan to combat the Islamic State group’s activity in the region. Under the plan, the trained fighters are supposed to only fight the Islamic State group, something which critics say is unlikely.
The first batch of around 5000 recruits were supposed to be combat-ready by December – a goal that Republicans now say looks close to impossible. Lashing out at Carter, Republican Senator John McCain dismissed current recruitment levels as “not a very impressive number.”
“There is no compelling reason to believe that anything we are currently doing will be sufficient to achieve the president's long-stated goal of degrading and ultimately destroying ISIL – either in the short-term or the long-term," he said. ISIL is an acronym of a former name used by the Islamic State group.
Carter responded to criticism by stating recruitment levels were unexpectedly low due to challenges vetting potential fighters. However, he said vetting is likely to become easier as the training program progresses.
“As training progresses, we are learning more about the opposition groups and building important relationships, which increases our ability to attract recruits and provides valuable intelligence for counter-ISIL operations,” Carter said.
According to one anonymous defense official that spoke to Politico, many volunteers are failing the first stage of vetting, which screens potential recruits for basic criteria such as age requirements.
In a civil war where alliances are constantly in flux, experts say finding fighters with no links to organizations designated by the United States as terrorists is no easy feat.
Many fighters once loyal to Western backed militias have joined the ranks of the Islamic State group over the past year.
