US military trains dozens of Syrian fighters against DAESH
US military started training dozens of Syrian fighters in new push against DAESH, says US Army Colonel Steve Warren
Col. Steve Warren, the spokesman for the US-led coalition in Iraq, speaks to reporters during a news conference at the US Embassy in the heavily fortified Green Zone in Baghdad, Iraq, Oct. 1, 2015.
The US military announced on Friday that it had started training "dozens" of Syrian opposition fighters to fight against DAESH terror organisation as part of an improved program that aims to avoid mistakes that failed its first training effort in Turkey last year.
US Army Colonel Steve Warren, a Baghdad-based spokesman for the US-led coalition battling DAESH, told Pentagon reporters that no Syrian opposition fighters had graduated yet from the new training program.
The US Department of Defense had announced on October 9, 2015 that the US train and equip military program for the Syrian opposition fighters will be overhauled, amended and refocused.
In early 2015, the US had announced plans to train and equip 15,000 Syrian opposition fighters over the course of three years and was planning to raise at least 5,000 fighters until the end of 2015.
However, the program came under harsh criticism after it failed to recruit enough fighters and the first group of trainees disbanded or were captured in Syria and another group forfeited their weapons and equipment to the Al Qaeda-affiliated Nusra Front.
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