The U.S. military said Friday is has started training dozens of Syrian opposition fighters to combat the Islamic State terrorist group, a revamped program that officials hope will not run into the same problems that doomed the first rebel training program in Turkey last year.
New recruits are being trained how to identify targets for U.S.-led coalition airstrikes to allow coalition aircraft to better strike Islamic State targets from the air, Reuters reported.
“That allows us to bring significantly more fires into play in any of these skirmishes, battles, and firefights that are taking place throughout Syria,” said Army Col. Steve Warren, a Baghdad-based spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition.
No fighters have yet graduated from the program. The Pentagon did not specify where recruits are being trained by a U.S. official told Reuters the program is running in Turkey again.
Officials hope to avoid the mistakes made in the first training program by pulling smaller groups of fighters from the front lines for training instead of pulling entire units like the Pentagon did last year.
“If it works we’ll do more. And if it doesn’t we’ll shift again,” Col. Warren said.
In October, the Pentagon said it would “pause” its $500 million training program after it ran into numerous setbacks, with the first class of less than 60 fighters coming under attack from al Qaeda’s Syrian wing, Al Nusra. Later, a group of U.S.-trained rebels handed over ammunition and equipment to Al Nusra as soon as they crossed the border into Syria.
• Kellan Howell can be reached at khowell@washingtontimes.com.
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