US pauses its Syrian rebel training programme

The United States of America (U.S.) has decided to freeze its programme to train Syrian rebels to fight the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) as it will now provide aid to rebels who are presently fighting against the ISIS.

Christine E. Wormuth, an Undersecretary of Defense for Policy, has said that the training programme has not been cancelled but is on "operational pause," The Washington Post reported.

The decision to pause the training programme, which started earlier this year, was taken due to its repeated failure.

Earlier, a trained unit handed over its US provided equipments to the local al-Qaeda associate.

According to reports, many newly US trained rebels had surrendered themselves to rival groups as soon as they cross to the Syrian border.

Under the programme, selected Syrians were taken to Turkey or Jordan and were given a week-long training course by the US. Over 200 rebels were trained under this programme.

The US has now decided to provide aide and give a crash course in human rights and combat communications to rebels who are already battling the ISIS.