In the latest iteration of its Syrian train and equip program, the Pentagon is no longer requiring recipients to pledge that they will only fight the Islamic State (ISIL).
The change in policy, which was revealed by Col. Steve Warren during a Tuesday press briefing, gives rebels tied to Washington mostly free rein to use US-backed weapons against both Syrian government forces and their Russian military allies.
“We do ask them, we want them to fight ISIL”, Warren told reporters, referring to rebels forces that received 50 tons of ammunition in a weekend airdrop from the Defense Department. He added, however, that he was “not prepared to talk about requirements or restrictions or pledges or anything like that.”
Warren was reminded by a reporter that the Pentagon’s previous efforts included explicit provisions that sought to keep US-backed forces out of the conflict between the Syrian government and those seeking to topple it.
“In this case, the Syrian-Arab coalition is nowhere near the Assad regime, so it’s kind of a moot point,” Warren responded.
Last week, the administration scrapped its plans to raise a moderate rebel force in Syria, citing the difficulty in vetting and recruiting new fighters to the cause.
“The train and equip program has changed, but it has not gone away. We are still equipping moderate Syrian opposition fighters,” Warren claimed, though The New York Times noted Monday that Islamist groups, including the al-Qaeda linked Nusra Front, have benefited from the assistance.
The overhaul in strategy was likely prompted by the entrance of the Russian military into the long-running Syrian civil war.
In a bid to protect the closely-allied Assad government from collapse, Moscow last month started conducting airstrikes against Syrian rebel groups of all stripes, including, reportedly, US-backed fighters.
Col. Warren noted that the new weapons shipments don’t include restrictions on their use against the United States’ old Cold War foe.
“It’s difficult to put a restriction on a bullet obviously,” he admitted, before saying that the department was “satisfied” that the arms are going to fighters focused on ISIL.
“There are no Russians where that ammunition landed,” he added.
Warren began the press briefing by noting that since intervention against the Islamic State began last summer, US armed forces and their allies have conducted 7,440 airstrikes in Syria and Iraq. The Russian military, meanwhile, has launched approximately 80 strikes in Syria, he noted.
