Only "four or five" U.S.-trained Syrian rebels remain in fight

Only "four or five" U.S. -trained Syrian rebels are currently in Syria to fight against the extremist group the Islamic State (IS), a top U.S. general acknowledged Wednesday.

Grilled in a hearing by U.S. lawmakers who dismissed the training program as a "total failure", General Lloyd Austin said he agreed that the U.S. military would not reach its previous goal of training 5,400 Syrian rebels this year.

"It's a small number," Austin told the Senate Armed Services Committee. "The ones that are in the fight is... we're talking four or five."

Touted by U.S. President Barack Obama as vital part of his counterterrorist strategy in Syria and Iraq, the 500 million dollar train-and-equip program got off to a disastrous start in Syria in July when members of the first batch of 54 Syrian trainees were either killed or taken hostage by the Syrian affiliate of al-Qaida group, the Nusra Front, even before their fight against the IS started.

Other remaining fighters reportedly fled, causing members of the committee to describe the training program as a "joke".

"So we're counting on our fingers and toes, where we envisioned 5,400 by the end of this year," said Senator Claire McCaskill.

Calling the U.S. strategy against the IS a debacle, the committee's chairman, Republican Senator John McCain said assessments by the Pentagon which claimed that the U.S. strategy was working was "divorced from reality."