The limited CIA programme – known as Timber Sycamore – also received funding from Qatar, Jordan and Turkey. It was seen by the Obama administration as a limited means of offering support in a conflict in which it had no interest in placing US troops on the ground.
A second programme, overseen by the Pentagon, was aimed at training rebels to combat Isis fighters in Syria. The programme was halted last year after it emerged that despite spending more than $500m, with the aim of training up to 5,000 rebels, it resulted in just five trained fighters.
After the meeting between the two leaders, the US and Russia announced a new cease-fire in southwest Syria, along the Jordanian border, where many of the CIA-backed rebels have reportedly long operated.
John Pike, Director of the military and strategic research group GlobalSecurity.Org said the CIA programme was one of the biggest funding of foreign militia in its history. The Pentagon programme, by contrast, had been a huge failure.
“I think Putin will be thrilled,” he told The Independent. “Now America has the option of backing [ISIS] or backing Assad.”
*Source: Independent of London
