"There is actually a total of nine now currently active in Syria," said U.S. Air Force Col. Pat Ryder at a press conference.
According to Ryder, another 11 U.S.-trained Syrian fighters had also officially joined the New Syrian Forces (NSF), also known as Division 30, but have yet to arrive in Syria.
"So 20 NSF fighters are part of the program," said Ryder.
The NSF is a Syrian militant group approved by the United States as the linchpin of the Pentagon's effort to train and establish a local force within Syria to fight the IS. It provides the Pentagon with vetted trainees who would only fight the IS rather than the Syrian government.
However, the Pentagon's 500-million-dollar train-and-equip program got off to a disastrous start in Syria in July when members of the first round of 54 NSF trainees were either killed or taken hostage by the Syrian affiliate of al-Qaida group, the Nusra Front, even before their fight against the IS started. Other remaining fighters reportedly fled.
In a testy congressional hearing on Wednesday, General Lloyd Austin, who oversees the war against the IS, told U.S. lawmakers that only "four or five" U.S.-trained Syrian rebels currently remained in fight in Syria and the U.S. military would not reach its goal of training 5,000 Syrian fighters any time soon.
Xinhua - china.org.cn
19/9/15
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Related:
Syria Qaeda captures five more US-trained rebels
US struggles to find ‘moderate’ Syrian rebels to train
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Un chef de l'Etat islamique "meilleur élève" des instructeurs US...
ReplyDeleteL'un des chefs de guerre de l'Etat islamique Tarkhan Batirachvili alias Abu Omar al-Chichani a reçu une formation militaire auprès des officers américains lors de son service dans l'armée géorgienne.
D'après le journal en ligne McClatchyDC, qui cite un membre de l'armée géorgienne désireux de garder l'anonymat, Batirachvili figurait parmi les "meilleurs élèves" des instructeurs US en Géorgie dans la période de 2006 à 2010. Le futur commandant de l'EI a notamment pris part au conflit sud-ossète en 2008, faisant preuve alors d'"excellentes compétences en guerre asymétrique".
"Il a reçu une très bonne formation, et les Etats-Unis nous ont beaucoup aidés", explique l'interlocuteur du journal.
A l'issue du conflit en Ossétie du Sud, l'intéressé a été arrêté pendant 15 mois pour possession illégale d'armes. En 2012, Batirachvili est parti de la Géorgie pour la Syrie avant de joindre les rangs de l'Etat islamique.
Selon le département d'Etat américain, il a géré une prison de l'EI où des otages étrangers étaient détenus et organisé des opérations du groupe terroriste dans une des régions syriennes. En 2013, il a été nommé commandant des forces de l'EI opérant dans le nord du pays, à savoir dans les provinces d'Alep, Raqqa, Lattaquié et Idlib. D'après certains rapports, Batirachvili a été abattu en novembre 2014.
http://sptnkne.ws/KS4
19/9/15
Seventy five Syrian rebels trained by the United States and its allies to fight ISIS have entered northern Syria since Friday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Sunday....
ReplyDeleteRami Abdulrahman, director of the Observatory, said the rebels had crossed into Syria from Turkey with 12 vehicles equipped with machine guns.
A top U.S. general told Congress on Wednesday that only four or five Syrian rebels trained under the programme aimed at fighting ISIS were still fighting in Syria.
The U.S. military began training in May for up to 5,400 fighters a year, in what was seen as a test of President Barack Obama’s strategy of having local partners combat Islamic State militants and keep U.S. troops off the front lines.
Reuters