US axes $500m scheme to train Syrian rebels, says NYT

The US has axed its $500m (£326m) programme to train and equip moderate Syrian rebels to fight Islamic State in another move highlighting western failures as Russia seizes the initiative by launching direct military intervention in support of Bashar al-Assad.

Pentagon officials were expected to officially announce the end of the programme on Friday as the US defence secretary, Ashton Carter, left London after meetings with his British counterpart, Michael Fallon, about the conflicts in Syria and Iraq, the New York Times reported.

The programme was the most visible element of US backing for Syrian opposition groups but it has already suffered embarrassing setbacks. Last month, it transpired that it had trained only four or five fighters inside Syria and that others had surrendered to rival groups and handed over the their weapons when they crossed the border from Turkey. Other covert programmes are run by the CIA.


Who backs whom in the Syrian conflict
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A senior US Department of Defense official said there would no longer be any more recruiting of moderate Syrian rebels to go through training programmes in Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia or the United Arab Emirates. Instead, a much smaller training centre would be set up in Turkey, where a small group of “enablers” – mostly leaders of opposition groups – would be taught operational methods such as how to call in airstrikes, the paper reported.

Gen Lloyd Austin, who heads the US military’s Central Command (Centcom), confirmed last month that 54 graduates of the programme were attacked by the al-Qaida affiliate, Jabhat al-Nusra, in northern Syria in July. It is still not clear how many of the fighters fled and were captured, or killed.

Austin told Congress there was no way of meeting the goal of 5,000 recruits a year, but urged patience. Another defence official blamed the reason for low numbers on the laborious vetting process used to recruit rebels.

The scrapping of the programme caps a disastrous few weeks for US policy on Syria, already weakened by the perception that while Obama is prepared to tackle Isis, he will not fight the Assad regime head on but is instead holding out for a political solution to end the conflict.

Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey are planning to step up arms supplies to Syrian rebel groups that are being targeted by Russian airstrikes, diplomats have told the Guardian. Those countries, as well as Syrians fighting Assad, argue overwhelmingly that the regime poses a far greater threat to the country than the jihadi group, which many see as a western fixation.

The US, like Britain, has been signalling in recent weeks that Assad could remain in power in Damascus for an undefined transitional period, fuelling opposition fears that they are being abandoned.


Russia denies missiles aimed at Syria landed in Iran
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Obama said last week that Russia’s failure to distinguish between Isis fighters and moderate opposition forces was a “recipe for disaster”. The US president said his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, “doesn’t distinguish between Isil [Isis] and a moderate Sunni opposition that wants to see Mr Assad go. From their perspective, they’re all terrorists. And that’s a recipe for disaster.”

Fallon said after his talks with Carter that the UK government remained committed to building parliamentary support for RAF airstrikes against Isis in Syria despite Russia’s intervention.

“We will continue to build the case for military action in north-east Syria where Isil is headquartered, where its command and control is. Russian intervention doesn’t change that. We will continue to build the case for intervention in the new parliament,” he said.

Carter said Russia’s support for Assad was “illogical” and would ultimately rebound against Moscow. “They are going to have the effect of inflaming the very extremism that Russia claims to want to combat,” he said. “By taking the side of Assad they inflame the civil war – and therefore extremism – and prolong the suffering of the Syrian people. They are going to have the effect also of turning everyone against Russia itself. This will boomerang in a very direct way on Russia.”

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/oct/09/us-to-axe-5-scheme-train-syrian-rebels-nyt

hajlat:

When will Nigeria belong to these group of World super power ?

hajlat:

When will Nigeria belong to these group of World super power ?

Shymm3x:


That's why we need a bi-polar (multi-polar) world where one country won't have absolute powers. The US had its time after the collapse of the Soviet Union. What did it do? It destroyed world peace with bombs while masking it with humanitarian intervention. It also created all the Muslim fundamentalists inconjuction with Saudi Arabia and Qatar to make our lives miserable with war mongering. Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Yemen, and now Syria with tens of millions dead and utter destruction everywhere. Some of these country will never recover from the utter destruction the US dealt on them. Evidently, if a next country is willing to come from the other side to put an end to the madness and create an atmosphere where vulnerable countries would be given cover from US' utter destruction and death squads under the banner of Jihadists - you just have to laud it. The whole world is behind Russia (based on public opinions) - from the UK (even the overwhelming majority of right-wing nutters), to Germany, to France, to Australia, to New Zealand, to Romania, to Czech, to Africa etc.. So he's the saviour from US' madness till proven otherwise. For how long are we going to be hiding from CIA created Islamists with people disturbing our lives with unnecessary surveillance and harassment at airport over false-flag?

Lmao! What NATO? I've never seen NATO deploy the Tomahawk missiles from over 1,000 miles. Just as the US has Patriot missiles, but we know the s300 is far superior to it. Ditto one-minute man vs. Topol. Please, don't compare a paper-tiger with the real deal. Yes, NATO has a far wider reach with quantity but Russia provides quality.

Well, I've never called Daily Beast a CIA mouthpiece. Matter of fact, I reference Daily Beast more often than any other US publication. Don't twist my words.

Anyway, how are ya Jihadist friends? I heard they're running for their lives now.

Missy89:

I hear you. Russia indeed do have a better strategy in Syria

Point is, The US navy have moved far beyond hitting static targets with cruise missiles and have successfully tested synthetically guided Tomahawk missiles that can hit moving targets, alter its course toward the moving target after receiving position updates from surveillance aircraft/drones. They can even loiter over a target area. When Russia have the capability in 2056, Let me know .

The only area Russia can even dream to compete with the US navy is with submarines. Most Russian naval surface ships are old soviet legacy relics. They are modernizing however i will give them that.

S300 is a fascinating piece of technology but USAF wont even break a sweat penetrating it. There are advanced Miniature Air-Launched Decoys that can render it obsolete if it is integrated with Joint Standoff Weapons like AGM-154 and advanced Anti-Radiation missiles.

Russia's military quality is impressive but very limited.

Shymm3x:


So, are you joining #TeamPutin like the rest of the world, or are you still in bed with CIA's Jihadists?

Lmao @ synthetically guided TLAM. Another paper test, you mean? I'm sure the Russia already have something far better than that, the same way they just shocked the world with 3M-14s. The funniest thing is that I've never seen both the US and UK use TLAM outside the waters of an intended target and against any country with a decent air defence. However, we just saw Russia hit targets from the Caspian sea across two countries successfully. And apart from the fact that the missiles went through Iran which is a formidable country - they also went through Iraq where the US has a lot of assets. Also, 3M-14s is already more advanced than TLAM since the former is supersonic, while the latter is subsonic. And I'm sure the range is also far more superior.

Lmao again. Have you seen the new Russian vessels? Anyway, apart from Subs which are the most important tools in naval warfare - the rest are just sitting targets for missiles. And don't even bring up obsolete aircraft carriers cos those are scrap metals...sitting duck for missiles.

Yes, the same way the F-117 Nighthawk stealth aircraft was shot down by an obsolete SA-3 in Serbia, no? Have you seen s500s and the new Pantsir?

hajlat:

When will Nigeria belong to these group of World super power ?

Amack:
Putin world strongest man. America world number one gay and satanic country. Bleep their green gay card.

bufness:
boko haram needs just one of this

Shymm3x:


So, are you joining #TeamPutin like the rest of the world, or are you still in bed with CIA's Jihadists?

Lmao @ synthetically guided TLAM. Another paper test, you mean? I'm sure the Russia already have something far better than that, the same way they just shocked the world with 3M-14s. The funniest thing is that I've never seen both the US and UK use TLAM outside the waters of an intended target and against any country with a decent air defence. However, we just saw Russia hit targets from the Caspian sea across two countries successfully. And apart from the fact that the missiles went through Iran which is a formidable country - they also went through Iraq where the US has a lot of assets. Also, 3M-14s is already more advanced than TLAM since the former is supersonic, while the latter is subsonic. And I'm sure the range is also far more superior.

Lmao again. Have you seen the new Russian vessels? Anyway, apart from Subs which are the most important tools in naval warfare - the rest are just sitting targets for missiles. And don't even bring up obsolete aircraft carriers cos those are scrap metals...sitting duck for missiles.

Yes, the same way the F-117 Nighthawk stealth aircraft was shot down by an obsolete SA-3 in Serbia, no? Have you seen s500s and the new Pantsir?

Tkester:
@ Missy,

I'm sure you didn't read the article (remember it's from a western source), because if you did you will notice that the ship is far better than the western analogues - because the missiles are mounted on a 150 feet ship and it displace only 1500 tons of water (to the utter amazement and embarrassment of the west) Unlike its American counterpart that is 500 feet long displacing over 9000 tons of water. This is something Putin was able to achieve within just 5 years of being in power. Point is, the Ruskies are not the noisy types, they've a lot of secret weapons - cooling off and waiting for the final Armageddon. Dare them to your own peril. Or you may chose to drown in your own created fantasy

I know you won't like this, but again it's not your fault.

CSTR2:
The fact that you would bring the russian navy into comparison with the US is just laughable.
Heck, the german navy would swallow russia's.
You are delving to the realms of fiction.

Tkester:



The bolded is for those who think that the Russia's military is all about the information they get from CIA controlled media. Russia has got some badass weapons, doubt it to your own peril.

Must you quote the whole thread just to make a point

searching4love:
OBAMA IS TOO WEAK. IF IT WERE GEORGE BUSH, BY NOW HE WOULD HAVE INVADED RUSSIA AND DESTROY PUTIN AND HIS FAKE MISSILE

Missy89:


I hear you. Russia indeed do have a better strategy in Syria

Point is, The US navy have moved far beyond hitting static targets with cruise missiles and have successfully tested synthetically guided Tomahawk missiles that can hit moving targets, alter its course toward the moving target after receiving position updates from surveillance aircraft/drones. They can even loiter over a target area. When Russia have the capability in 2056, Let me know .

The only area Russia can even dream to compete with the US navy is with submarines. Most Russian naval surface ships are old soviet legacy relics. They are modernizing however i will give them that.

S300 is a fascinating piece of technology but USAF wont even break a sweat penetrating it. There are advanced Miniature Air-Launched Decoys that can render it obsolete if it is integrated with Joint Standoff Weapons like AGM-154 and advanced Anti-Radiation missiles. A comprehensive USAF Iron Hand operation will amaze you.

Russia's military quality is impressive but very limited.

Missy89:



Shym is not thinking straight because of his man crush on Putin.

eleko1:
Those Boko Rams Bastards need such.Abeg Russian,make una com helep us here

searching4love:
OBAMA IS TOO WEAK. IF IT WERE GEORGE BUSH, BY NOW HE WOULD HAVE INVADED RUSSIA AND DESTROY PUTIN AND HIS FAKE MISSILE