US Begins Training Syrian Militants in Jordan

Local Editor

Four years after the start of the war in Syria and almost nine months after Congress first authorized funding to train militants in that conflict, the United States had begun offering training to Syrian armed groups under the pretext that they would combat the Takfiri "ISIL".

Jordanian officials declared that coalition forces had begun training prescreened militants at a site inside the Middle Eastern kingdom. Training locations were also expected to begin operation in Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

Further, Congress appropriated $500m to train up to 5,000 Syrian militants in September 2014. Currently, just 400 militants were being trained in Jordan out of 3,750 potential volunteers.

US Central Command [Centcom] said that the training would cover a range of combat skills, "including marksmanship, casualty care, land navigation, communications, leadership and law of armed conflict and human rights principles".

On Capitol Hill, some of the most forthright supporters of a more interventionist policy in Syria criticized the Obama administration's training program as inadequate.

In a like manner, Senator John McCain pushed for a no-fly zone over Syria and stated "I have no confidence in [the training] process whatsoever."

The 2008 Republican presidential nominee added: "I don't think it's possible to recruit a young man to be trained in Jordan or Saudi Arabia or some place and go back in and tell him you're not going to protect him from being barrel-bombed. It's immoral."

McCain's statements were echoed by Senator Lindsey Graham who called the program "fatally flawed". Graham, a potential 2016 Republican presidential candidate declared, "the program's going to fail..."

Moreover, the three-term South Carolina senator said sadly that any militant that the United States trains would be sent back to "certain death".

The United States had long been plagued by uncertain policy in the Syria conflict. While the Obama administration had insisted that Syria's President Bashar al-Assad must step down, the emergence of "ISIL" had complicated the situation as had the White House backing away from Obama's "red line" on the use of chemical weapons by the regime.

Accordingly, a Pentagon spokesperson declared: "We're on track to meet program timelines and will make announcements regarding any milestones when appropriate."

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team