British Government To Train Syrian Soldier

In October 2015, the White House abandoned a similar effort after it emerged only a handful of fighters had been trained.

Senior Pentagon officials admitted the plan hadn't worked and instead focused on arming approved rebels.

The British Government has announced it will commit UK troops to a Syrian training mission that has previously ended in failure.

They will be sent to the Middle East to train members of the Syrian moderate opposition, only 12 months after a similar plan was suspended.

Initially, 20 British soldiers will deploy to Jordan and Turkey, to bolster a US mission that started in July.

They will train vetted Syrian "moderates" in infantry, medical and explosive hazard awareness skills.

But the British Government is unable to explain how the Syrians are vetted, or what constitutes a "moderate" rebel, other than to say that the recruits must have no obvious links to terror organisations.

"Hundreds" of rebels are expected to be recruited this time, a Whitehall source said, but it is unclear how this training programme will be more successful than a disastrous equivalent that was embarrassingly suspended only a year ago.

The British personnel will leave for Jordan and Turkey in the coming days. They have been drawn from a variety of units.

The Defence Secretary Michael Fallon has defended the deployment, saying that it will put further pressure on Islamic State. 

He said: "All volunteers from the moderate opposition will be subject to strict vetting procedures and will receive training in International Humanitarian Law.