US leaving CIA-trained militants at Russia’s mercy: Ex-Obama aide

The administration of US President Barack Obama is abandoning US-trained militants in Syria, allowing Russia and Kurdish forces to slowly destroy them, a former Obama aide says.

The Pentagon announced plans last year to conduct a $500 million “train-and-equip” program to produce about 5,400 militants in Syria annually as a proxy ground force against Daesh (ISIL) and President Bashar al-Assad, a program that yielded only a small cadre of 145 militants before it was officially pulled.

Separately, the CIA has also been running a similar program aimed at pressuring Assad to step down.

Those groups are now allegedly being targeted by Russian airstrikes in the Arab country, which began September last year upon a request from Damascus.

A US-backed Kurdish group known as the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) are also said to have targeted the militants.

"You can use the cliché of choice — it's a deal with the devil or beggars can't be choosers," said Frederic C. Hof, who was once Obama's special adviser for the conflict in Syria.

According to American officials, protecting the trained militants from Russia and Kurds is not realistic anymore, and it makes more sense for the US to support YPG instead, which also receives US support in from of ammunition and airstrikes.

"By and large the only people who have been willing to fight ISIS on the ground in Eastern Syria is this Kurdish militia. But this militia has its own agenda. It has its own objective. Its objective is to establish a Kurdish autonomous zone,” Hof argued.

This notion has been echoed by the State Department press secretary John Kirby who defended US support for the Kurdish forces earlier this week.

"They’ve been some of the most effective fighters against Daesh, and they have been supported by the air from the coalition," he told reporters.

"And going forward, I would expect that that sort of support — where and when appropriate, as before — would continue," he added.

Syria experts and critics of the administration's policy say Obama has decided to go after Daesh while avoiding a military confrontation with Russia or the Syrian government at all costs.

The administration also drew criticism for notifying Russian air forces where US special operators were stationed in Syria.

More than 470,000 people have reportedly been killed and millions displaced in about five years of fighting in Syria.

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