US army plan to train Syria rebels falters

Fewer than 100 volunteered for the fight so far against the planned 5,400

Syrian rebels attend a training session in Maaret Ikhwan near Idlib, Syria. - AP file
Washington - The US military's programme to train and equip thousands of moderate Syrian rebels is faltering, with fewer than 100 volunteers, raising questions about whether the effort can produce enough capable fighters quickly enough to make a difference in the war against the extremist Daesh group.
The stated US goal is to train and equip 5,400 rebels per year, and military officials said last week that they still hope for 3,000 by year's end. Privately, they acknowledge the trend is moving in the wrong direction.
On June 26, 2014, the White House said it was asking Congress for $500 million for a three-year train-and-equip programme. The training, however, only got started in May after months of recruiting and vetting of volunteers.
That programme, together with a more advanced but also troubled parallel effort to rebuild the Iraqi army, is central to the US-led effort to create ground forces capable of fighting Daesh without involving US ground combat troops.
The Syria initiative is intended to enable moderate opposition forces to defend their own towns against the Daesh militants, not to form a national resistance army. Expectations for the Iraqis are much higher; the goal is to have them roll back Daesh and restore the Iraq-Syria border.
The main problem thus far has been finding enough Syrian recruits untainted by extremist affiliations or disqualified by physical or other flaws. Of approximately 6,000 volunteers, about 1,500 have passed muster and await movement to training camps in other countries. Citing security concerns, the Pentagon will not say exactly how many are in training. Officials said that as of Friday, the number in training had dropped below 100 and that none has completed the programme. Dozens who were initially accepted have been sent home during training or quit because of revelations about their background or other problems, according to two senior US defense officials. They were not authorized to discuss details and spoke on condition of anonymity.
"We have set the bar very high on vetting," said Col. Steve Warren, a Pentagon spokesman.
Maj-Gen. Michael Nagata, the Central Command special operations commander who is heading the programme, wants volunteers with more than a will to fight.
"We are trying to recruit and identify people who ... can be counted on ... to fight, to have the right mindset and ideology," and at the same time be willing to make combating IS their first priority, Defence Secretary Ash Carter told the House Armed Services Committee on June 17. "It turns out to be very hard to identify people who meet both of those criteria," Carter said.
Many Syrian rebel volunteers prefer to use their training to fight the government of President Bashar Assad, the original target of their revolution. While Daesh has been a brutal occupant of much of their country, the rebels see the extremists as fighting a parallel war.
Jennifer Cafarella, a Syria analyst at the Institute for the Study of War, doubts the viability of the training programme.
"It is simply difficult to acquire the number of Syrian rebels willing to participate in the training under current parameters," she said. 

• MENA