US Has Only Trained 60 'moderate' Rebels to Fight in Syria

The United States has so far only trained 60 fighters to form a "moderate" Syrian opposition that will fight the Islamic State in Syria. 

Reuters reports that the 60 is far, far lower than the Pentagon and White House had hoped when they began the program in May. The training is taking place at facilities in Turkey and Jordan and was originally supposed to produce 5,400 fighters a year. The revelation was made during testimony by Defense Secretary Ash Carter to Congress.

Carter said that the shockingly low figure was the result of an intensive background check process intended to prevent radical Islamists from receiving U.S. training and weaponry. He also admitted that reaching the goal of even a few thousand fighters was a pipe dream at this point.

The White House said that "not enough" soldiers had been trained according to Reuters. 

The fighters are seen as key to the international community's goals of rolling back the gains of ISIS, which controls large parts of Syria and Iraq. Complicating matters is that it is not clear if the U.S. trained forces would fight soldiers loyal to Bashar al-Assad. Currently, the United States does not engage Assad's soldiers with airstrikes, and instead concentrates them on ISIS positions.

The U.S. position on air support should Assad's soldiers attack the U.S. trained forces is unclear.

The vast majority of fighters on the ground are Islamist and many have claimed that the idea of establishing a "moderate" force is basically impossible, particularly since the secular opposition has been decimated by both the Syrian government and Islamist forces like ISIS.

It is also unclear whether ISIS can actually be defeated even with an influx of U.S. trained troops. Despite U.S. air support, Kurdish groups in northern Syria have been trading territory with ISIS, making gains and suffering losses weekly.