The U.S. Department of defense closed last year’s program on support and training of Syrian opposition forces, which cost the Pentagon $ 500 million and has not brought the expected results, writes on Saturday, the Foreign Policy magazine.
According to the publication, the program began in the spring of 2015 and included the training of five thousand rebels by the end of the year, however, due to desertions and attacks from other militia groups, was trained and fought against the group “Islamic state” (IG, is prohibited in Russia) only a handful of fighters. “We’re talking about four or five (fighters),” said a U.S. army General Lloyd Austin, speaking on Thursday at a hearing in the Committee on armed services, U.S. Senate.
“The program was much less than expected,” confirmed the representative of the Ministry Christine Wormuth, noting that all had received training from 100 to 120 people.
In September 2015, Republican Senator John McCain said that the Pentagon plan to support the opposition units “divorced from reality”, the newspaper notes. However, the American military from the special forces continued to operate with separate Syrian opposition commanders, in addition about 50 commandos were working in Syria to aid in the fight against ISIS.
The program, worth 500 million was closed in October, said in a statement Foreing Policy.
In 2016, U.S. Department of defense, with the approval of President Barack Obama introduced a new program to support the Syrian opposition, the newspaper notes.
