(AP) Robert Burns - On June 26, 2014, the White House asked Congress for $500 million for a three-year program to train and equip Syrian rebels to fight the Islamic State. Yet as of last week, fewer than 100 Syrians are currently being trained by the U.S. military. The main problem has been finding enough Syrian recruits untainted by extremist affiliations or disqualified by physical or other flaws. Moreover, many Syrian rebel volunteers prefer to use their training to fight the government of President Assad, the original target of their revolution.
2015-07-02 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive