United States to train Syrian rebels to fight the ISIS in Syria

#AshtonCarter #SyrianRebels #ISIS #Pentagon The United States has undertaken training program for selected batches of Syrian rebels with the intention of building a formidable force that would be able to take on and defeat the Islamic State militants. This has been revealed in bbc.com dated 8 May 2015.
The information as given by Ashton Carter, the US defense secretary, is that about 90 people were being trained in a secure location, and they would be paid by the United States. Other groups of fighters would also be given training at sites in Jordan, Turkey, Qatar and Saudi Arabia.

He has also indicated that supporting the troops militarily on the battlefield has not been ruled out. Nearly 4,000 fighters had volunteered for the program but, only 400 were selected after screening.
Ashton Carter has made it clear that the role of the force would be to take on the Islamic State and not the regime of President Bashar al-Assad. In case the rebels engaged the Syrian army, it would be viewed separately.
It seems the fighters will be paid by the United States, and, when deployed, will continue to receive back up and support from coalition forces – of course, there would be conditions. Right now there are about 450 coalition forces involved in the training at the four sites and 350 of them are Americans. The Pentagon has plans to train and arm 15,000 rebels over the next three years.

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2014 – The year of destruction of Syrian chemical weapons

#syriaassad #chemicalweapons In the civil war in Syria, thousands of people have died in the violence between the army of President Bashar al-Assad and the Free Syrian Army. Both the warring sides resorted to indiscriminate use of different types of weapons from firearms and missiles to aerial bombing.
At the height of fighting, reports surfaced about use of chemical weapons like mustard gas in certain localities of Syria. Both the sides blamed the other and when things came to a head, US President Barack Obama ruled that if chemical weapons were not surrendered, he would take it as a violation of the red line and would launch an attack on Syria.
Finally, after the involvement of the Russian President Vladimir Putin, the Syrian administration agreed to hand over the chemical weapons in a phased manner to a central agency.
Finally, President Bashar al-Assad agreed to hand over Syria’s stockpile of chemical weapons which were to be destroyed by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.
The Special Coordinator for the Joint Mission of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons and the United Nations has finally confirmed to the U N Security Council that 96 percent of Syria’s declared stockpile, including the most dangerous chemicals, had been destroyed and preparation were underway to destroy the remaining 12 production facilities.
“This is a chemical weapons disarmament process, it’s been unique,” said Sigrid Kaag after her final briefing to the Security Council in her capacity as the head of the joint mission dealing with Syria’s chemical weapons, which wound up its work at the end of September. The mission had overseen the destruction of 100 percent of “priority chemicals” and 96 percent of Syria’s chemical weapons stockpile.