|
WASHINGTON, Oct. 9 (Xinhua) -- The Obama administration announced on Friday it would halt its botched train-and-equip program to build a Syrian rebel force and focus on supporting forces already engaged in the fighting against the Islamic State (IS).
According to Christine Warmouth, under secretary of defense for policy, the Obama administration would from now on provide equipment and weapons for existing Syrian rebel groups whose leaders have passed through "the same rigorous vetting process that we have used in the original program."
"In terms of the program we originally conceived, we're going to pause that for now," said Warmouth at a White House press call on the issue. "We've had some significant challenges, so we're going to pause the training that we've been doing where we've recruited specific individual fighters."
The change is a recognition of the failure of U.S. President Barack Obama's flagship anti-IS training program which initially seeks to recruit 5,400 Syrian rebels each year for three years.
In a testy congressional hearing in September, 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 battle in Syria and the U.S. military would not reach its goal of training 5,400 Syrian fighters any time soon.
Later, the Pentagon corrected the number of U.S.-trained Syrian rebels currently fighting the IS in Syria to nine.
Senior officials of the Obama administration had said earlier the initial U.S. strategy to recruit, train and arm moderate Syrian rebels failed partly because most of Syrian rebels were more focused on fighting the Syrian government.
Meanwhile, Ben Rhodes, senior national security advisor to Obama stressed on Friday that any U.S. military efforts inside Syria "has always focused on IS."
Related:
Russia dismisses U.S. refusal to share intelligence in campaign in Syria
MOSCOW, Oct. 8 (Xinhua) -- The reluctance of the United States to share intelligence on Syria will not hamper Russia's operations in the war-torn country as Moscow has sufficient information from other sources, a Russian official said Thursday.
"We get this information from sources in a number of other countries, coordinating it with our partners within the Baghdad Information Center," said Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov. Full story
Top U.S. officials warn of "gaps" in screening Syrian refugees
WASHINGTON, Oct. 8 (Xinhua) -- Top officials of the Obama administration on Thursday cautioned that "gaps" remain in their ability to screen Syrian refugees whom the White House had pledged to accept.
"My concern is there are certain gaps ... in the data available to us," said James Comey, Director of Federal Bureau of Investigation, at a congressional hearing. Full story
Russia-backed Syria army on broad offensive against rebel-held areas
DAMASCUS, Oct. 8 (Xinhua) -- Syria's army chief of staff, Gen. Abdullah Ayoub, said Thursday that the military has unleashed a broad offensive against rebel-held areas across the country, buoyed by the Russian air support, according to the state news agency SANA.
"Today the Syrian armed forces have started a wide-scale offensive with the aim of eliminating the terrorists' positions and liberate the areas and towns that have suffered from terrorism and its woes and crimes," Ayoub said in a statement. Full story
China backs political solution to Syrian crisis: FM
BEIJING, Oct. 8 (Xinhua) -- China has always backed a political solution to the Syrian crisis, and called for a new Geneva conference on Syria, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said on Thursday.
"We have noticed Russia said the military campaign is at the invitation of the Syrian government and aims to combat terrorism there," Hua said at a press briefing when asked if China backs Russia's air strikes against the Islamic State (IS) terrorists in Syria since Sept. 30. Full story
