The US soldiers, all members of the Special Forces, will join their Turkish colleagues to train Syrian rebels in a military base in the central Anatolian province of Kirsehir, the paper said, citing unidentified sources.
The paper said training will start in 10 days and that the rebels will be trained in groups of 400.
Ankara and Washington signed an agreement in February to train some 2,000 members of the Free Syrian Army in one year, and 5,000 fighters in three years inside Turkey.
Turkey has been criticized for being reluctant to take robust measures and declined to be a fully-fledged part of the anti-IS coalition unless Washington agrees to adopt an "integrated strategy" that also aims to remove Syrian President Bashar al-Assad from power.
Turkey, once an ally of Assad, is now the fierce opponent of the Syrian government and has been supporting the opposition trying to topple him since 2011.
Source:Xinhua - globaltimes.cn
30/4/15
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Some 123 US soldiers arrived at Turkey with weapons for train-equip program of Syrians...
ReplyDeleteSome 123 U.S. soldiers arrived in Turkey for training of moderate Syrian opposition, along with weapons that are being transferred to İncirlik Airbase for equipping part of the program.
Syrians, who will be trained in Hirfanlı military base in Kırşehir, will be transferred to southern Hatay where they will be equipped with necessary briefing for use of arms, including anti-tank and machine guns, before travelling to Syria to join fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), according to sources.
83 of the U.S. soldiers are deployed in İncirlik Airbase, while 40 of them are in Kırşehir at the moment.The program, agreed by Ankara and Washington in February, was delayed for months due to disagreements between Turkey and the U.S. on whom to train....hurriyetdailynews.com
30/4/15