The US congress has endorsed an administration decision to train Syrian opposition fighters. Coming after three years of dithering, the move seems to be a turning point in Washington's policy, but for many Syrians it has seemed too little and too late. The plan to train the opposition fighters, US officials say, calls for sending a force of 5,000 fighters to training facilities in Saudi Arabia for a year. The hope is that these men will then serve as a striking force against both the extremists of the Islamic State (IS) group and the regime of Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad. While the US has announced its plans for concerted international action against IS in Iraq, its policies in Syria remain vague. Although the Americans have promised to strengthen the country's “moderate” opposition, little is known of the criteria for being a moderate or the kind of weaponry the US is willing to deploy. In Syria itself, the news that the US intends to train opposition fighters has not generated much enthusiasm, though the National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces (NCSROF), an umbrella group, gave a cautious welcome to the US decision, saying that it denoted a new approach to the Syrian crisis. However, NCSROF senior figure Abdel-Ahad Astifo was sceptical about the implications of the decision. Speaking to the Weekly, Astifo said that the decision to arm the Free Syrian Army (FSA) was a good one, but that it was perhaps too late. The size of the force involved was also too small. “The training of 5,000 fighters cannot possibly resolve the issue, and it is hardly sufficient to confront the terror of Al-Assad and IS,” he said. Such a small number of fighters could not possibly deter the terror groups and could even “extend the lifetime” of the Syrian conflict, Astifo added. This new force “is not even half the size of the militia Hizbollah sent to Syria to fight alongside the regime.” Haytham Manna, deputy leader of the National Coordination Committee for Democratic Change (NCCDC), was also sceptical about the decision. “What the Americans say about training Syrian moderate fighters will not change the balance of power in the country,” Manna said. “Between the IS, the Al-Nusra Front militants and the regime and its allies, there are 300,000 men or so under arms. This means that the number of opposition fighters who will get training will be close to 1.5 per cent of the total.” Fighting extremism with violence might also make it stronger. In Yemen, terrorist groups had been able to replace their leadership with relative ease whenever their leaders are killed in battle, Manna added. “For every one who falls, there are fifteen waiting to take his place,” he said, adding that a more integrated approach was needed to the Syrian crisis. “The situation calls for a comprehensive political, social and media approach on the regional, Arab and international levels,” he concluded. There is no shortage of opposition fighters in Syria, and some opposition members note that most of the moderate forces in the Syrian military opposition are former army officers and soldiers who have defected. Their number is perhaps close to 75,000. Some 10,000 former policemen have also left Syria and are living in camps in Turkey and Jordan. None of these has been welcomed into the ranks of the existing armed groups, perhaps because their training contrasts with the haphazard ways of the militant outfits. If the US really wants to see a moderate opposition army take form in Syria, it could call on the services of tens of thousands of well-trained professionals. To form such a force, all the US would have to do would be to find a way of providing quality weapons to former army and police personnel. Syria also has an ample supply of Islamist and non-Islamist groups willing to fight both the regime and the extremists. Many of these groups have obtained valuable combat experience over the past few years, including the Hazm Movement, the Noureddin Zenki Brigade, the 13th Battalion, the 101st Battalion, the Syrian Revolutionaries Front, and others. Taken together, these groups contain some 50,000 men. Members of the Syrian opposition say that the US plans to postpone the conflict with the regime to a future phase, in order to focus its efforts on IS. Many also spoke with concern about the inroads IS is making in the northern parts of the country. According to some reports, IS has seized many border crossings with Turkey that were previously under the opposition's control. If this situation continues, IS will be able to strangle the resistance by cutting off its supplies of army and humanitarian relief. Meanwhile, supporters of the Syrian regime in the international community hope that the Syrian opposition will cooperate with the regime, if only temporarily, to stamp out the IS terror. But various opposition figures have ruled out this possibility. One senior Western diplomat said that the US had already trained 10,000 Syrian fighters in neighbouring countries and that the recent congressional announcement was just a way of formalising work that has already been underway. According to the same diplomat, the US is hoping that these fighters will serve not as a striking force in the current conflict but as the nucleus for a new Syrian army in the transitional phase. However, for this plan to work, the US will have to find a way to force the regime to abdicate from power, something that will be far from easy. Fahd Al-Masri, head of the Centre for Strategic and Military Studies on Syria, a think tank, said that the US decision was part of a strategy Washington is putting together to unseat Al-Assad. This strategy might combine a no-fly zone in Syria with strikes against IS. “It is certain that the US will impose a no-fly zone on Syria as it carries out air strikes against IS. The Syrian air force will not be able to fly its planes, which will deprive the regime of its strongest weapon. This will allow the revolutionaries to advance and gain territory,” he said. Al-Masri also believes that the Americans and their international allies will now bomb crucial installations belonging to the Syrian regime. “The international coalition will bomb the strategic positions of the regime during its raids. It will target the Republican Guard and the 4th Battalion which is under the command of Al-Assad's brother, pretending to mistake them for terrorist sites,” he said. “The US believes that bombing four or five positions of the Republican Guard will lead to the regime's collapse,” Al-Masri concluded.
