Only 4 to 5 American-trained Syrians Fighting Against the Islamic State by Thomas Gibbons-Neff, Washington Post
There are only four or five American-trained Syrian rebels currently fighting against the Islamic State, the top general leading the effort to build a force to counter the militant group in Syria said Wednesday.
The tiny number of fighters are part of the New Syrian Force, the byproduct of a $500-million-dollar train and equip program that was launched officially in December to train moderate Syrians to fight the Islamic State.
The remarks by Army Gen. Lloyd Austin, head of U.S. Central Command, angered members of the Senate Armed Services Committee who said the program is a failure.
The training first came under scrutiny in July when Secretary of Defense Ashton B. Carter told the Senate Armed Service Committee that only 60 fighters had been trained with roughly 7,000 in the training pipeline. The quota, set at the program’s outset, called for 3,000 to 5,000 fighters to be trained in the first year.
Carter claimed the slow going was due in part to a stringent vetting process for the Syrians, which included a polygraph and background checks…