The U.S. military is conducting a broad review of the training program in Syria when a commander for operations in the Middle East acknowledged that there are only four or five fighters left from the first group of Syrian fighters.
The first group of 54 Syrian fighters that had been trained by the U.S. was part of a $500 million program and there are only 100-120 fighters in three more classes currently being trained, Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Christine Wormuth told the Senate Armed Services Committee on Wednesday.
Earlier this year, Secretary Ashton Carter called these efforts "a critical and a complex part" of U.S. efforts to fight ISIS.
President Obama has vowed there would be no U.S. "boots on the ground" from the beginning of U.S. operations against ISIS.
General Lloyd Austin, lead of the U.S. military's Central Command, said he would take "appropriate action" if an investigation finds officials altered intelligence reports on the Islamic State and other militant groups in Syria to exaggerate progress being made against terrorist groups.
