US General Leading Anti-ISIL Campaign: Syria Militant Training Could ’Take Years’

Local Editor

Retired American general John Allen, who is leading the US-led campaign to fight so-called "Daesh" [ISIL] in Iraq and Syria, said on Wednesday that the training of Syrian militants would be a slow process.

  "It is going to take a while, it could take years, actually," Allen said in an interview with CNN. "We have to manage our expectations."

The US Congress has approved the training and equipping of so-called "moderate" Syrian militant units as part of a US-led plan in Iraq and Syria.

Allen said the training of Syrian militants was already under way.

"The process of getting that unfolded is occurring right now with the idea of locating training camps and beginning to accumulate the Syrian elements that will go into those training camps," he said.

The United States, which leads the coalition, initially launched strikes in Iraq on August 8 and widened its campaign on September 23 to include Syria.

Allen said the international response has provided an opportunity for new partnerships.
"It's actually an important moment where so many countries from so many different backgrounds share that view, that this is an opportunity to create partnership across those lines of effort that can achieve real effect," he said.

Meanwhile, some countries have criticized the US-led airstrikes, questioning the motives of the US-led bombing campaign in Syria.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team