US train-and-equip program 'delaying tactic'

The ex-Chairman of the Military Council of Aleppo, Colonel Zahir Sakit, has criticized the United States (US) harshly for its decision to add the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) - affiliated Democratic Union Party (PYD) terrorists to the train and equip program.

"The train-and-equip program is a delaying tactic and the deception project of the US," said Sakit in his speech to Turkish Yeni Şafak daily, adding that the US has never been honest with the moderate opposition of Syria.

The names of 500 Turkmen fighters were demanded for the first phase of the training, which a total of 2,000 fighters will attend.

The training; which will include PYD-affiliated Suwal Al Raqqa and Jaysh al-Thuwa, is to be held in camps in Turkey and Jordan.

The training of the Syrian opposition, fighting against Daesh terrorists in the northern Aleppo, is to start in May.

Opposition members located at the hot zones are to be trained with priority.

The program also required that all weapons and ammunition provided will be used against Daesh terrorists.

The US Defense Department last year allocated a $500 million fund to train a moderate Syrian group to fight Daesh.

But the program was suspended in October after it only graduated around 150 fighters at a cost to the US of about $380 million.

The program's results have not been impressive. On July 29, 2015, the group trained under this program attacked Al Nusra Front terrorists in Azaz. Twenty-one moderate opposition members were abducted and all the ammunition provided by the US was seized by Al Nusra Front.

Fresh bombardments of regime in Latakia

Meanwhile, the forces of Assad regime relaunched attacks in rural part of the Latakia with rockets and howitzers.

A number of houses were destroyed in Ağcabayır, Sallur, Kelez villages.

A loud explosion in the region could be heard from the Yayladağı town of Hatay.

The regime bombardment followed the retaking of Ağcabayır village by the moderate opposition.