Photo by John Cantlie/Getty Images(NEW YORK) — The U.S. training program for moderate Syrian rebels has begun in Jordan, the Pentagon confirmed on Thursday.
The initial training, says Defense Secretary Gen. Ash Carter, involves about 90 Syrian rebels. A second group is expected to begin training in the coming weeks. A U.S. Defense official told ABC News that the training site is in Jordan, though Carter did not identify the site in his Thursday news conference.
Once trained, the rebels are expected to return to Syria. Officials anticipate that taking place in “a few months.”
“If they are contested by regime forces,” Carter acknowledged, “we would have some responsibility to help them.” He added that it had not yet been determined how that responsibility would be exercised. Still, if the trained rebels were to be overrun by ISIS militants, “we definitely would absolutely work to protect them,” Carter said.
At the news conference it was also noted that the trained forces would receive some form of paid compensation from the U.S.
“Many are motivated by the fact that [ISIS] has taken over and mistreated the places from which they came,” Carter said Thursday, “and so their commitment is something that we have a very good idea of as part of the vetting process.” The U.S., he added, would not have direct command and control over the trained rebels, noting that they would likely have some say in where they fight against ISIS.
A Defense official told ABC News that about 400 Syrian fighters have been vetted out of a pool of more than 3,000 submitted by various moderate Syrian rebel groups.
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