Pentagon to deploy 400 troops to train Syrian rebels
Source: Reuters
(Reuters) - The U.S. military is planning to deploy more than 400 troops to help train Syrian rebels to fight the Islamic State, along with hundreds of U.S. support personnel, a Pentagon spokesman told Reuters on Thursday.
The U.S. military has not yet identified where it will draw its forces from for the training mission, expected to begin in the spring at sites outside Syria, Colonel Steve Warren said. Turkey, Qatar and Saudi Arabia have offered to host the training.
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The Pentagon has estimated that it can train more than 5,000 recruits in the first year and that up to 15,000 will be needed to retake areas of eastern Syria controlled by Islamic State.
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Across the border in Iraq, Obama has authorized more than 3,000 U.S. troops to advise and train Iraqi and Kurdish forces.
Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/01/16/us-syria-crisis-usa-idUSKBN0KP0FO20150116
get the red out
(13,458 posts)that these "rebels" won't be part of the Islamic State?
daleo
(21,317 posts)another_liberal
(8,821 posts)Can escalations of thousands and tens of thousands be far off?
quadrature
(2,049 posts)hundreds of thousands of dead.
Arab Spring .... more like -->
spring summer fall winter
etc etc etc etc
(perpetual war)
rock
(13,218 posts)He asked snarkily.
OneAngryDemocrat
(2,060 posts)Here we go... again.
It don't take no mutha fuckin 400 soldiers to 'train' foreign fighters. There ain't no mutha fuckin 400 drill instructors at MCRD (Marin Corps Recruit Depot) in San Diego. Oh - to be sure, there are more than 400 Marines there fulfilling administrative roles. But I don't recall anyone authorizing US military forces to 'administer' an opposing force in a foreign civil war. This shit sucks ass. Big time.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/RockfordSOL/
Jesus Malverde
(10,274 posts)How many more are needed, before we say enough.
http://www.vice.com/read/syria-deraa-USA-Jordan-FSA-regime-CIA