UK, US training militants to fight Syrian government: Analyst
British and American forces have conspired together in training the so-called moderate militants in Syria to fight against the country’s legitimate government, not battle against the Daesh (ISIL) terrorist group, a US author and investigative journalist says.
“The reality of course is that the British, in league with the US and actually acting on the US’ behalf, are training people to combat the Syrian government and that’s what this is all about,” said Dave Lindorff, a columnist for Counter Punch and a contributor to Business Week and other news organizations.
“At the same time, we’re hearing that the US is putting on hold its provision of heavy weapons to the militants that the US is backing which it also is calling moderate militants and I think that’s an indication that the US is worried that these so-called moderates are actually not at all reliable, are not at all moderate, and that the weapons that it has been providing to them have ended up in the hands of some really dangerous players,” Lindorff said.
“We’ve seen so many reports that the moderate militants have turned up to be the very people who’ve been filmed beheading people and executing people in front of their families,” he added. “So the idea that the British have suddenly figured out who the moderate militants are so that they can train them to combat Daesh is absurd on its face.”
UK Minister of Defense Michael Fallon says British special forces will soon resume training “moderate” militants in Syria to bolster the fight against Daesh.
Fallon made the announcement on Tuesday, before meeting with defense ministers from a US-led coalition which has been striking purported Daesh positions in Iraq and Syria since 2014.
The efforts to promote the militancy in Syria come at a time when the West, mainly the US and the UK, have come under fire for openly seeking to remove President Bashar al-Assad from power.
Russia, which has been pounding Daesh across Syria upon a request from Damascus, says the Western-trained militants’ only use is to oust Assad.
Syria has been grappling with foreign-backed militancy since 2011. The conflict has killed more than 400,000 Syrians, according to UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura.
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