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(yes: exactly why would the rebels need "training" to fight Daesh when
the rebels expelled Daesh from idlib, Hama, Aleppo, Homs, Latakia, Deir
Ezzor and Damascus (and temporarily even Raqqa) with close to zero help
from anyone, in Jan-Feb 2014. If Daesh made a comeback later in the year
in Deir Ezzor and eastern Aleppo, it was mainly due to the advanced
weapons windfall they got from the US-Iranian regime in Iraq when they
conquered Mosul. So, as with the war on Assad - the main war - they need
good weapons.of course as the article explains, it is not actually a
force made up of Syrian rebels, still less the FSA, but individually
vetted trainee fighters - MK)
Syria rebels cast doubt on U.S. training program
http://www.militarytimes.com/story/military/2015/05/08/syria-rebels-cast-doubt-on-us-training-program/26993033/
By Zeina Karam and Bassem Mroue, The Associated Press 3:04 p.m. EDT May
8, 2015
(Photo: Virginie Nguyen Hoang/AP)
BEIRUT — Syrian rebels on Friday voiced deep reservations about a U.S.
program to train moderate rebels that American and Jordanian officials
say has kicked off in Jordan, dismissing it as a drop in the ocean that
would not change realities on the ground.
U.S. officials say the program is part of a broader effort to build a
force capable of fighting Islamic State extremists — not President
Bashar Assad's forces whom rebels blame for fanning extremism in Syria
and the region.
That alone has incensed some rebels who said they would not take part in
the training even if they had been given the opportunity.
"The principle is wrong — very wrong," said a rebel who goes by the
alias Abu Qays, with the Levant Front faction, or Jabha al-Shamiya,
which operates in and around the northern province of Aleppo.
He, like many other Syrian rebels, say they have been squeezed by
Assad's army from one side and Islamic State group fighters from the
other, and they are fighting both. "But to say that we are training you
to fight Daesh and not Bashar is an insult," he told AP by phone, using
an Arabic acronym for the Islamic State group.
Syrian rebels have been pleading for international help — particularly
weapons — ever since the uprising against Assad's rule that began in
2011 devolved into an outright civil war. Moderates among them have long
said that the West's failure to bolster their forces helped fuel the
rise of militants like the Islamic State group, which overran about a
third of Syria and neighboring Iraq, even as the rebels struggled
against Assad, who is backed by Shiite fighters from Lebanon's Hezbollah
and by funding and arms from Iran.
U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter said Thursday that the U.S. is
training the rebel troops to fight against Islamic State militants and
will support the fighters in that effort with surveillance or
airstrikes. But he said that while the U.S. bears some general
responsibility to protect the rebels, there have been no decisions yet
on what the U.S. would be willing to do if the trained rebels return to
Syria and get into a battle with Syrian government troops.
MILITARYTIMES
U.S. says Syrian rebel training starting in Jordan
Gen. Martin Dempsey, the top U.S. military officer, added that the Assad
government's momentum against the rebels has slowed, and any dramatic
change of rule in the country could increase the humanitarian crisis
there.
The initial segment of the training program will involve about 90
rebels. The program will expand to training sites in Turkey, Saudi
Arabia and Qatar. More than 3,750 Syrian fighters have volunteered for
the training, and about 400 have completed the prescreening.
In Syria, many people said they were in the dark as to which groups were
eligible for the training or how the vetting process was taking place.
"We have no idea about the program. No one invited us, no one informed
us about it and no one asked our fighters to join," said Maj. Issam el
Rayyes, a spokesman for the Southern Front, a coalition of more than 50
moderate Islamic rebel factions affiliated with the Free Syrian Army.
Some described it as a futile exercise.
"Fighters in Syria have acquired more experience than international
armies," said a spokesman for a powerful coalition of rebel group that
operates mostly near the Syrian capital. "Consequently what rebels in
Syria really need today is qualitative weapons and ammunition not
training," he said on condition of anonymity because he was not
authorized to speak publicly on the subject.
He also raised concerns about the type of training, the means of
selecting trainees and fears that they would go on to join the Islamic
State group.
A spokesman for Syria's main Kurdish force, Redur Khalil, said Kurdish
fighters were currently not part of the training, something he described
as "strange" since they were the main group fighting the Islamic State
group in Syria currently.
Earlier this year, the force, known as the People's Protection Units, or
YPG, liberated the Kurdish town of Kobani in northern Syria from IS
militants following fierce battles that lasted around four months. The
Kurds were aided by small units from the FSA and supported from the air
by U.S.-led coalition airstrikes.
Khalil said there were ongoing contacts between the Kurds and U.S.
officials to get them to support a Kurdish role. He, like others, said
what was needed was weapons not training.
Abu Qays said the training won't be enough to make a mark on the ground
in Syria.
"It is a drop in the ocean."
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