NEW YORK, October 9 (RIA Novosti) — Washington's plans to train and equip 5,000 moderate Syrian opposition fighters will not lead to the defeat of the Islamic State (IS), analyst Julien Barnes-Dacey from the European Council on Foreign Relations told RIA Novosti Thursday.
"The US plans to train some 5,000 Syrian fighters from amongst the rebels in Saudi Arabia. The Islamic State has as many as 30,000 fighters across Syria and Iraq; the Syrian army has hundreds of thousands. It's really a drop in the ocean in terms of what will be needed," Barnes-Dacey said.
According to Barnes-Dacey, the real question now is who will support the airstrikes against the Islamic State by fighting on the ground.
"It will either require a significant ramping up of arming and training, or some kind of Western ground intervention, which seems very unlikely at this stage," the expert said.
The IS, also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) or the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), is a radical Sunni group, which has been fighting the Syrian government since 2012. In June, it started launching attacks in the northern and western regions of Iraq, announcing the establishment of a caliphate on all the territories under its control.
The United States began launching airstrikes against the IS in Iraq on August 8, later initiating an international campaign to fight the IS threat and extending the operation into Syria.
In September, President Barack Obama announced that a part of the US strategy for countering the threat of the IS will include providing training for 5,000 'moderate' Syrian opposition fighters annually. Saudi Arabia agreed to provide bases to train the forces.
