Islam Times - US-trained militants surrender arms to al-Qaeda affiliate in Syria: Pentagon

Islam Times - The Pentagon says a group of US-trained "moderate" militants in Syria has handed over arms and equipment to an al-Qaeda-linked group in the country, a report says.

US Central Command said on Friday night that the items were surrendered to the al-Nusra Front in exchange for safe passage within the region, the Associated Press reported. It said the items amount to 25 percent of the equipment assigned to the group.

A US Central Command spokesman said the command is investigating the incident.

"In light of this new information, we wanted to ensure the public was informed as quickly as possible about the facts as we know them at this time," Air Force Col. Pat Ryder said.

"We are using all means at our disposal to look into what exactly happened and determine the appropriate response," he added.

Congress approved a $500 million program late last year to train and equip more than 5,000 “moderate” militants to fight in Syria.

US military officials admitted that the Pentagon program has failed.

Last week, the chief of the US military campaign in Iraq and Syria acknowledged that the Pentagon program to “train and equip” militants in Syria had yielded only "four or five" militants.

The remarks by Army Gen. Lloyd J. Austin III, head of US Central Command, before a Senate panel on September 16 set off a wave of criticism from congressional lawmakers, who are wary of the Obama administration’s strategy towards the Daesh (ISIL) terrorist group.

With the program now in disarray, Pentagon officials are scrambling to revamp the strategy, the New York Times reported earlier this month.

Military leaders are drawing up plans to put larger numbers of newly-trained militants in safer zones as well as providing them with more intelligence on the ISIL terrorists.

The training program is run by US Special Forces in Turkey and Jordan, and is separate from a similar covert program by the CIA.

The Pentagon initially said that it intended to train and arm about 5,400 militants a year as a proxy ground force against Daesh in Syria.