US, Turkey to begin training Syria’s terrorists on Sunday

A Turkish official says the United States and Turkey are set to begin a program to train and equip thousands of the so-called moderate Syrian terrorists in a bid to continue the fight against the Syrian government.

Turkey’s Foreign Ministry Spokesman Tanju Bilgiç said on Friday “I can say that the train-and-equip program will begin as of March 1.”
Ankara and Washington signed the deal to train and arm the terrorists following months-long talks on February 19.
The two sides claim that the so-called moderate terrorists will fight both the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and ISIL Takfiri terrorists, who control parts of Syria and neighboring Iraq.
The program is aimed at training over 5,000 terrorists in the first year with their total number reaching 15,000 in three years.
Washington had earlier announced that it would send at least 400 troops to train the terrorists outside of Syria.
Turkey was one of the three countries that publicly expressed its readiness to open its territory for the training of the terrorists.
Turkey’s Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said on February 20 “Saudi Arabia and Qatar have also announced that they will be hosting a train-and-equip program.”