US-led training for Syrian rebels to start in May: Turkish minister

US-led training for Syrian rebels to start in May: Turkish minister

ISTANBUL - Reuters

Turkish Defence Minister İsmet Yılmaz. AA Photo

A U.S.-led programme to train Syrian rebels to fight Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militants will start in May, Turkey's Defence Minister İsmet Yılmaz was quoted as saying by the state-run Anadolu news agency on March 31.
   
U.S. officials have said they plan to train about 5,000 Syrian fighters a year for three years as part of a campaign against Islamic State forces in Iraq and Syria.
   
Details on the training - due to take place in Turkey, Jordan, Qatar and Saudi Arabia - have been scant, although it had previously been planned to start this month.
   
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said on Friday that the programme had been delayed by Washington, but described the delay as minor and said that in technical and political terms, everything was otherwise on track.
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