Syria: US Mulls Military Training Of Rebels

The Obama Administration is considering using military trainers to increase the capabilities of Syrian rebels, news reports say.

Any training would take place outside Syria, possibly in Jordan, according to the AP news agency.

As the Administration and Congress debate military strikes on Syria, the State Department ordered non-essential diplomats to leave neighbouring Lebanon due to security concerns.

It also urged American citizens to leave Lebanon, the country where Hezbollah, an ally of the Syrian regime, is based.

As the US considers stepping up its assistance to rebels, Secretary of State John Kerry warned of the risk of extremists taking over the opposition to Syrian President Bashar al Assad if the US fails to intervene.

The crisis dominating G20 talks, with Russia opposed to military action

Mr Kerry referred to a video obtained by the New York Times, purportedly showing extremist rebels executing captured Assad soldiers.

He said: "I guarantee you if we turn our backs today, the picture we all saw in the paper today and the media of those people shot, that will take place more because more extremists will be attracted to this."

In an interview with MSNBC, he insisted the US has a "vetting process" in place to determine which groups of rebels get assistance.

Mr Kerry has recently said that extremists amount to 15 to 25% of the Syrian opposition, saying he disagreed with claims that "a majority are al Qaeda and the bad guys".

He added some of the extremists groups are "fighting each other, even now".

The estimate drew criticism from Russian President Vladimir Putin, one of Mr Assad's staunchest international allies, who said Mr Kerry "is lying and he knows that he is lying".

President Barack Obama in June decided to provide lethal aid to the rebels, but so far none of that assistance has got to the opposition.

The debate on whether to provide military training to the rebels comes as Mr Obama prods Congress to authorise limited military strikes against Mr Assad's government in retaliation for a chemical weapons attack last month.

Washington says the Assad regime is responsible for the attack, which killed more than 1,400 people according to US estimates.

Mr Kerry (L) and Chuck Hagel have been pressing Congress to back action

The US and Russia have been unable to agree on a way forward on the crisis, and tensions have dominated the G20 summit in St Petersburg.

The CIA has been training select groups of rebels in Jordan on the use of communications equipment and some weapons provided by Gulf states.

The new discussions centre on whether the US military should take over the mission so that hundreds or thousands can be trained, rather than just dozens.

No decision has been made.

The Pentagon already has at least 1,000 troops in Jordan, including trainers working with Jordanian forces.

General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has said the US could provide between several hundred and several thousand trainers, with a cost of as much as $500m a year, depending on how large the training mission became.

He noted that, due to vetting difficulties, there was a risk of "extremists gaining access to additional capabilities".

The number of refugees fleeing the civil war has increased

The proposal to use the US military to train the rebels would answer the demands of some lawmakers, including Senator John McCain, to do more to train and equip the Syrian opposition

Mr McCain said he remains "opposed to having a single American boot on the ground in Syria".

But the senator, who has long called for action in Syria, added: "If we open the door to the use of chemical weapons and let it go unresponded to, then I think that sends a signal to other people that want to use them, that they can do so with impunity."

He faced a tough crowd during a town hall meeting in Phoenix, with some holding up signs against action in Syria.

Meanwhile, the Pentagon is looking into a potential list of targets in Syria as the US military weighs its options.

According to the New York Times, the Administration is considering the use of aircraft to conduct strikes on specific targets in addition to ship-launched Tomahawk missiles.

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