Gordon Lubold writes, at Defense One, that:
The Pentagon will deploy more than 400 U.S. military trainers and hundreds more supporting personnel to four training sites in three countries as early as March as part of a long-awaited plan to help rebel forces to stabilize Syria.
And:
In addition to the trainers, the U.S.military expects to deploy hundreds of additional U.S. military personnel as so-called enabling forces who will deploy alongside the trainers to provide security and other support at the training sites, according to senior defense officials. Coalition partners are expected to contribute forces as well for an effort that for now is envisioned to train about 5,400 rebel forces each year for three years.
The U.S. military personnel will not actually be sent to Syria:
Since December, administration officials have said that training program could begin as early as March in the three countries that have agreed to host the training: Turkey, Qatar and Saudi Arabia. At least four training sites in those countries are being identified and the plan is to split the approximately 400 U.S. trainers and their accompanying support forces evenly across those sites for what is expected to be a six- to eight-week training cycle.
The mission is critical since, as Aaron David Miller writes in the Wall Street Journal, should the Assad regime fall
… ISIS and other Islamists would benefit. Islamic State would take over its first major Arab capital, and recruitment would skyrocket. Alawites and other minorities would flee, further stressing neighboring Lebanon and Jordan, which are already burdened with refugees.
