Training of Syrian rebels to begin this spring: Pentagon

Washington, Jan 7 (IANS/EFE) US military training of moderate Syrian rebels will begin this spring, while the process of selecting fighters for the exercise is under way, the Pentagon has announced.

At a news conference Tuesday, US Defense Department spokesperson John Kirby said that the programme could require more US troops in the Middle East to train international forces against the Islamic State (IS) terrorist group.

Turkey, Qatar and Saudi Arabia have offered help to the US in selecting training centres for the rebels, who are weakened and fragmented after over three years of conflict against Syrian regime leader Bashar al-Assad.

The US plan is to train 5,000 Syrian rebels, continue airstrikes against the IS and assist and train the Iraqi armed forces, so as to attack the extremist forces, which have occupied large areas of Syria and Iraq, on two fronts.

At the moment, the US has deployed 2,140 of the 3,000 soldiers authorised by the White House to train Iraqi troops.

According to Kirby, the rest of the contingent would reach Iraq in the next four to six weeks.

Kirby also for the first time admitted that the Pentagon was investigating to see if there were civilian deaths as a result of its airstrikes against the IS, though he refused to confirm if innocent people had been killed in the same.

He also claimed that the IS was on the defensive in Iraq and that its progress had been halted, especially in the last two weeks, while admitting that the Sunni extremists still controlled certain pockets of Mosul and Ramadi in Iraq, and the Syrian city of Kobani, near the border with Turkey.

--IANS/EFE

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