US military officials are considering ways to ramp up training of Syrian fighters against Isis (Islamic State) as the Pentagon moves cautiously forward with a revamped programme to create an effective local ground force.
Several US officials, speaking to reporters on condition of anonymity to discuss ongoing military efforts, described the modest progress that the Pentagon has made since late last year, when the Obama Administration abandoned an earlier Syria training plan.
After repeated setbacks to that programme, which aimed to create an army of Syrian fighters from scratch, officials settled on a more modest approach, one that would train only small numbers of leaders or other key personnel from local units who could act as a liaison with US and allied forces attacking Isis from the air.
Since the original programme was revised, US military personnel have trained fewer than 100 additional fighters, mostly outside Syria, officials said. Those trained are specialised fighters who military officials describe as "spotters" rather than ordinary infantry troops.
"What we're looking at now is taking out key enabler personnel from certain units, training them and then reinserting them so they can provide information to the coalition to enable us to then target [Isis]," one official said.