CIA expands training programme for US-backed militias in Syria
Programme is producing only a trickle of fighters, and is being eclipsed by growing ranks of radical Islamists, some linked to al-Qaeda
The CIA is expanding a clandestine effort to train opposition fighters in Syria amid concern that moderate, US-backed militias are rapidly losing ground in the country's civil war, US officials said.
But the CIA programme is so small that it is expected to produce only a few hundred trained fighters each month even after it is enlarged, a level that officials said would do little to bolster US-friendly rebel forces, who were being eclipsed by radical Islamists in the fight against the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
This came as experts overseeing the destruction of Syria's chemical arsenal began securing their work sites.
"Joint work with the Syrian authorities has begun on securing the sites where the team will operate," the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons and the UN said.
The UN Security Council also demanded immediate and "unhindered" access to the millions of civilians trapped for months by the conflict.
The CIA's mission, officials said, had been defined by the White House's desire for a political settlement, a scenario that relied on an eventual stalemate among warring factions rather than a clear victor.
As a result, officials said, limits on the agency's authority enabled it to provide enough support to help ensure that politically moderate, US-supported militias did not lose but not enough for them to win.
