BEIRUT (AP) – Syrian rebels on Friday voiced deep reservations about a U.S. program to train moderate rebels that American and Jordanian officials say has kicked off in Jordan, dismissing it as a drop in the ocean that would not change realities on the ground.
U.S. officials say the program is part of a broader effort to build a force capable of fighting Islamic State extremists – not President Bashar Assad’s forces whom rebels blame for fanning extremism in Syria and the region.
That alone has incensed some rebels who said they would not take part in the training even if they had been given the opportunity.
“The principle is wrong – very wrong,” said a rebel who goes by the alias Abu Qays, with the Levant Front faction, or Jabha al-Shamiya, which operates in and around the northern province of Aleppo.
He, like many other Syrian rebels, say they have been squeezed by Assad’s army from one side and Islamic State group fighters from the other, and they are fighting both. “But to say that we are training you to fight Daesh and not Bashar is an insult,” he told AP by phone, using an Arabic acronym for the Islamic State group.