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The Pentagon plans to send hundreds of military personnel overseas to train moderate Syrian rebel fighters. The effort is meant to help these fighters take on the self-styled Islamic State or ISIS. But moderate commanders say their men took up arms against the Syrian President, Bashar al-Assad, and it'll be hard to explain why they're now expected to fight ISIS instead. NPR's Alice Fordham reports.
ALICE FORDHAM, BYLINE: It's been a long time coming. That's what Syria's rebels say about the announcement the U.S. and its allies will train and equip around 5,000 moderates. Troops are heading to Turkey, Qatar and Saudi Arabia for the training.
ZAKKARIA ABBOUD: (Speaking foreign language).
FORDHAM: This is Zakkaria Abboud, law student turned commander in the southern city of Daraa. In the four long years since the uprising began, he says he's lost 200 family members and friends. His face is scarred from combat.
ABBOUD: (Speaking foreign language).
FORDHAM: "We're a moderate military," he says, "we've become America's trusted friends and we deserve help."
I met several rebel commanders and activists in the city of Amman in neighboring Jordan. They're from the Southern Front alliance that controls much of the south of Syria, and they show me how they're trying to win America's trust.
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FORDHAM: Col. Baqqour al-Salim defected from Assad's army and is now a commander north of Damascus.
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FORDHAM: A brisk, older man, he shows me a professional-looking video the Southern Front made showing dozens of commanders individually committing themselves to human rights, moderation and rule of law.
BAQQOUR AL-SALIM: (Speaking foreign language).
FORDHAM: "The intended audience is the international community," says Salim. He wants the world to see that if they train and equip his men they're helping moderate revolutionaries, not the jihadists which grew up as the rebellion splintered.
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FORDHAM: And these commanders carefully video themselves using the missiles they're given by the group they call the Friends of Syria, which includes the U.S. and Saudi Arabia. They're proving the missiles are not falling into the hands of extremists. That's one of the big fears of U.S. officials, that these rebels are too weak and disorganized to even hang onto their weapons or have an impact in battle, particularly in the north. Some have joined with extremists or they've lost key ground. They change leaders and squabble. These commanders say they have received some covert training, though the Pentagon won't confirm that, and they hope they'll be high on the list for the new plan to train and arm fighters on a larger scale, but there's still hurdles.
AL-SALIM: (Speaking foreign language).
FORDHAM: The colonel says most of the men in his area are simple religious people. They took up arms against an enemy, Assad, and it's hard for them to understand why they're now getting help from a coalition whose goal is to fight ISIS, rather than Assad.
AL-SALIM: (Speaking foreign language).
FORDHAM: The colonel adds there isn't a big ISIS presence in his area, but the group sends preachers to talk to people. So when he tells his men they have to fight ISIS, they respond that they do not fight fellow Muslims.
BASHAR AL-ZAABI: (Speaking foreign language).
FORDHAM: Probably will be the most influential commander in the Southern Front is Bashar al-Zaabi, a onetime travel agent.
ZAABI: (Speaking foreign language).
FORDHAM: In his meetings with Americans, he says he explains that stopping terrorism requires stopping terrorism at the source. He says Assad allowed ISIS to grow by releasing extremists from prisons and not conducting military operations against the group.
ZAABI: (Speaking foreign language).
FORDHAM: Like the others, he wishes the coalition would try to defeat Assad and ISIS. The U.S. says it's seeking to pressure Assad to step down.
ZAABI: (Speaking foreign language).
FORDHAM: But, Zaabi says, "if Assad doesn't fall, a whole brutalized generation will grow up to be extremists." Alice Fordham, NPR News.