The U.S. commander of the terminated Syrian rebel training program will leave his post in the next few weeks, according to news reports.
Army Maj. Gen. Michael Nagata, commander of U.S. special operations forces in the Middle East, will step down from overseeing the recently rebooted training program but will likely be promoted to a new counterterrorism position, reports The New York Times.
The Obama administration earlier this month announced it will no longer train Syrian rebel fighters to combat Islamic State group militants. Instead, the money will go to providing weapons and ammunition to local counter-ISIS ground forces and to a background process that would vet leaders of the program as opposed to each individual fighter.
The $500 million program, intended to "train and equip" 5,000 Syrian rebels in its first three years, faced a series of setbacks amid U.S. efforts to roll back Islamic State group gains in Syria and Iraq.
In September, Army Gen. Lloyd Austin, chief of U.S. Central Command, acknowledged that the program had produced only "four or five" American-trained rebels fighting in Syria. CENTCOM confirmed a week later that some of the American-backed fighters had given their equipment to the al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front in exchange for not being harmed by the jihadist militia.
It was rumored in April that Nagata would leave his post after just two years to become director of the Combined Joint Interagency Task Force. CENTCOM, however, quickly rebuked the claim. The speculation caught the attention of Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, who furthered questioned why the Syrian rebel training program faced delays.
"Whoever is replacing him will take time to get up to speed on a process that has already been significantly delayed," McCain told Bloomberg News at that time regarding Nagata's potential departure.
"It doesn't make sense to me," McCain said. "When you have a job with that level of responsibility, there should not be a time frame."
The delays and setbacks in the rebel training program are not a factor in Nagata's departure, The Times report said.
Nagata, who has served in the Army for more than 33 years, will be promoted to lieutenant general, with the prospect of reassignment to the National Counterterrorism Center in Washington, D.C.
