ANKARA
Britain will provide military training to "moderate" Syrian forces in Syria to aid their fight against Daesh, U.K. Defense Secretary Michael Fallon has announced.
About 75 military trainers will be sent to the region to provide training in areas such as the use of small arms, infantry tactics and medical skills, Fallon said in a statement on Thursday.
“In Syria, coalition airstrikes have supported the liberation of Kobane and have disrupted ISIL’s logistics and supply lines,” he said.
The trainers will help opposition forces both defend Syrian communities against Daesh and lead their own offensives, he added.
Fallon said: "Defeating ISIL (Daesh's former name of Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant) ultimately lies with local forces and we are helping to create effective ground forces in Syria, as well as in Iraq, so they can take the fight to ISIL.”
'Advances stalled'
A U.S.-led program, due to begin in Turkey in the next few weeks, will train and equip thousands of screened members of the Syrian opposition over the next three years.
The defense secretary said Daesh must be defeated "in both Syria and Iraq".
He said: "Britain remains at the forefront of coalition military efforts to support the Iraqi government in their fight against ISIL.
"This effective and closely coordinated activity in conjunction with Iraqi and Kurdish ground forces has largely stalled the terrorists’ advances."
Two Sentinel aircraft were also being sent to the region to provide surveillance of Daesh's activity over Iraq and to track any improvised explosive device (IED) laying activity, and British Tornados and Reaper Remotely Piloted Aircraft had gathered intelligence and conducted 194 strikes over Iraq as of March 23, the defense ministry said in a statement.
