WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — The United States has been screening about 1,200 moderate Syrian rebels as candidates for a US training program to fight Islamic State (ISIL) terrorists, US Department of Defense Press Secretary John Kirby said.
“The 1,200 come from numerous groups, not any one group. We are working our way through the screening process,” Kirby said during a press briefing on Wednesday. “It [screening] is going to be individual by individual and that’s going to take some time.”
In January, the Defense Department announced that an advance team of about 100 US troops was deployed in the Middle East to survey and prepare training locations.
The US-led coalition against the Islamic State began carrying out airstrikes in Iraq in August, expanding the air campaign to Syria in September, though without Syrian government approval.
The ISIL, also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), is a Sunni military group that has taken over large portions of Syria and Iraq and declared a caliphate.
