Jan. 17, 2015 - Updated 04:40 UTC
The US government will send several hundred soldiers to train Syrian rebels to fight Islamic State militants.
Defense Department spokesman Rear Admiral John Kirby said Friday that the training personnel will be sent to countries near Syria in the coming 4 to 6 weeks.
US-led coalition air forces have since last August conducted air attacks on Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria. But they're not considered fully effective because of the lack of ground troops to help target militants.
The US government says it plans to train about 5,000 members of moderate rebel groups which continue to fight both Syrian government forces and Islamic State fighters.
The Obama Administration says it has no plans to send US ground troops to Syria.
A Pentagon source says the training program will begin in March at the earliest in Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar and will last several months.