The report published by the McCLATCHY website cites militants to reveal the training took place as far back as October and involved hundreds of militants.
“We hoped there would be more training on larger weapons,” the report quoted Kamal al Zoubani, a militant from the southern Syrian city of Daraa as saying. “But we were allowed to take light weapons back to Syria with us.”
The report quotes Zoubani as saying he was selected to receive the training along with at least three groups of 50 to 60 militants at a military base in southern Jordan in October, where uniformed Jordanian military officers were present, as well as people he believed to be American intelligence officers.
Meanwhile, another militant, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the training had expanded to anti-tank weapons and Stinger anti-aircraft missiles and that uniformed British and Jordanian military officers were present.
The revelations about militants being trained in Jordan comes after on Wednesday the United States recognized the so-called National Coalition of Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces as the legitimate representative of the Syrian people.
The UK, France, Turkey, and the [Persian] Gulf Cooperation Council have also recognized militants fighting the Syrian government.
Syria has been experiencing unrest since March 2011, and many people, including large numbers of security forces, have been killed in the turmoil.
The Syrian government says the chaos is being orchestrated from outside the country, and there are reports that a very large number of militants are foreign nationals.
Damascus says certain Western states, especially the United States, and their regional allies are fueling the unrest.
isna/281
Syrian militants have been receiving training to use light and heavy weapons in Jordan with the help of the British and US governments, a new report says.
News ID 183684
