U.S. one step closer to arming, training Syrian rebels against ISIS

SHARE THIS

• 
  
• 
  
• 
  
• 
  

• Print
• Email
• More sharing

By Holly Yan, CNN

September 18, 2014 -- Updated 

(CNN) -- While ISIS militants keep trying to spread their radical Islamist rule in Syria and Iraq, a slew of U.S. officials are scrambling to find the best way to stop them.

After the House approved President Barack Obama's plan to arm and train Syrian rebels in the fight against ISIS Wednesday, the Senate could vote as early as Thursday on the same measure.

And even though some senators expect the plan to pass in the Democrat-controlled chamber, Obama could see tough challenges from his own party.

Obama: This will not be America's fight

General doesn't rule out ground forces

Airstrikes in Syria on the way?

"I think it's very hard to sort out the moderate rebels from the extremists and I have a real worry that once we send these rebels back into the battle space there is very little we can do to prevent them from locking arms with al Qaeda or elements of ISIS," Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut said.

But Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill, a member of the Armed Services Committee, said the U.S. intelligence community will play an important role in vetting the rebels.

The Missouri senator also said training could take up to a year before arms are provided.

"All of those people criticizing this choice, I have yet to hear their better idea," McCaskill said.

Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine told CNN's "New Day" she had serious concerns about Obama's proposal.

"I don't know how we're going to effectively vet the so-called moderate Syrian opposition," Collins said.

"We spent billions of dollars and a decade training the Iraqi security forces. And look what happened when they were confronted with the ISIS threat -- they basically cut and run, with the exception of the Kurdish forces in the north."

Three years of waiting

If the United States ends up arming Syrian rebels, it would come after three years of clamoring by opposition forces.

Syrian rebels started asking the West for weapons in 2011, after peaceful political protests led to the regime's deadly crackdown.

That spiraled into an armed uprising and a civil war that has killed more than 190,000 Syrians over the past three years.

The United States has provided $2.9 billion in humanitarian aid to Syria, but has stopped short of giving Syrian rebels weapons.

The difference now? ISIS, its bloody takeover of stretches of Iraq and Syria, and its threat to Americans.

What if the airstrikes against ISIS fail?

Rep. King: ISIS is a real threat to U.S.

How much of a threat is ISIS to the U.S.?

A former chief of staff for the rebel Free Syrian Army is now more concerned about ISIS than the Syrian regime.

"At this time, it is more dangerous than the regime itself," Gen. Salim Idriss told CNN's Chris Cuomo.

Idriss acknowledged there are problems among rebel forces -- which is why U.S. training would help, he said.

"They are not unified, not organized, not working according to chain of command and control," he said. "We would like now to organize them with the help of our friends in the international community to build a kind of regular army to get better results fighting the regime and other extremist groups in Syria."

Idriss said the Free Syrian Army now has about 4,000 to 5,000 "well-trained fighters" in the country.

"And if we are going to train about 5,000 more, the whole number of the moderate fighters in the FSA will be ready and capable of fighting against ISIS."

ISIS captures more territory

While U.S. leaders mull what to do about ISIS, the terror group captured 16 villages in northern Syria in the past 24 hours, the opposition group Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Thursday.

The villages, near the Syria-Turkey border, are predominantly Kurdish, the SOHR said. The group said ISIS carried out its attacks using artillery and tanks.

Inside the mind of an ISIS fighter

No boots on the ground in Iraq

Obama reiterated Wednesday that the United States will not send combat troops back to Iraq.

"As your commander in chief, I will not commit you and the rest of our armed forces to fighting another ground war in Iraq," Obama told troops Wednesday at MacDill Air Force Base in Florida.

"The American forces that have been deployed to Iraq do not and and will not have a combat mission. They will support Iraqi forces on the ground as they fight for their own country against these terrorists."

On Thursday, Secretary of State John Kerry will testify before the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel will testify before the House Armed Services Committee.

But just as in Syria, the crisis in Iraq continues to unfold.

Iraq's Human Rights Ministry said Thursday that 1,095 Iraqi soldiers still are missing after an ISIS attack in June on a military base formerly known as Camp Speicher.

ISIS says it killed 1,700 Iraqi troops in the attack. The Iraqi government hasn't released a number of those killed; Human Rights Watch says ISIS executed hundreds of soldiers.