PHOTO: The commander of US Central Command, General Lloyd Austin, at a Senate hearing on Wednesday (Chip Somodevilla/Getty)

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Wednesday was marked by a series of claims over US military involvement in northern Syria which — far from resolving years of indecision — only added to confusion about Washington’s intentions and effectiveness.

On Tuesday, Foreign Policy reported that the Obama Administration had abandoned its initiative, launched in autumn 2014, to train and equip groups of rebels to face the Islamic State. After months of bureaucratic and logistic delays, the US only put 54 of 15,000 applicants into Syria — many of the rest were rejected because they wanted to challenge the Assad regime as well as ISIS.

Days after those 54 crossed the border from Turkey, the Islamist faction Jabhat al-Nusra attacked the Free Syrian Army’s Division 30 hosting the fighters. The commander and his deputy were abducted, along with 16 other troops. Division 30’s headquarters were attacked, with more fighters killed, wounded, and captured. The Division was effectively withdrawn from the frontline.

This week the US commander in the Middle East, General Lloyd Austin, told a Senate hearing on Wednesday that only four or five American-supported fighters were still active. He said that the US would not reach its goal of training 5,000 men “anytime soon”.

Foreign Policy said that the US military is now considering the placement of “small numbers of fighters” with “larger, established forces” in northern Syria so they are better-protected. The fighters will be limited to acting as spotters for American warplanes attacking the Islamic State.

The exact mission of the groups is still being determined. One scenario is that they would accompany Kurdish forces, supported by Free Syrian Army units, in northeast Syria. Another is that they would be placed in northern Aleppo Province between Mare’ and Jarablus, in the “safe area” proposed by Turkey earlier this year but still beset by debates over the implementation.

However, as the Foreign Policy report was circulating, Austin’s testimony fed the claim of a much-different US intervention arose. The General seemed to indicate that American special forces have long been on the ground inside Syria:

What our special operations forces have done in northern Syria is they didn’t wait for the New Syrian Force program or train-and-equip program to fully develop. At the very onset, they began to engage elements like the [Kurdish militia] YPG and enable those elements, and they are making a difference on the battlefield.

Three hours later, US Central Command issued a “clarification”. Special forces were not inside Syria planning missions or taking part in combat; instead, they had some communication and carried out planning with the Kurds:

Coordination and liaising by U.S. forces is conducted outside of Syria at the Coalition’s Joint Operation Center in northern Iraq. There are no U.S. military forces on the ground in Syria, nor have we conducted any U.S. military training of indigenous Syrian forces in Syria.

By the end of Wednesday, after Austin’s assessment that the Islamic State’s “overall capability has been disrupted” was taken apart by Senators — and with no indication of what US policy is about the Assad regime — it was unclear exactly what remained of the American policy for northern Syria.

Asked by Senator John McCain if he would recommend a no-fly zone for Syria, Austin said, “I would not recommend it at this point.” The General said that a buffer zone for refugees “would require a ground force….I don’t recommend it at this time.” Pressed by McCain about whether he would do anything to help refugees, the General summarized, “It’s already in our best interests to help civilians, but I would not recommend a buffer zone at this point and time.”

Department of Defense officials merely said that only 100 to 120 Syrian fighters were in training right now.

Meanwhile, State Department spokesman John Kirby further distanced the US from military operations to press the Assad regime:

Kerry: I Was Tough With Russia’s Lavrov in Phone Call

US Secretary of State John Kerry said Wednesday that, in his third conversation with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in less than a week, he made “clear that Russia’s continued support for [the Assad regime] risks escalating the conflict and undermining our shared goal of fighting extremism”.

Kerry said that, while Lavrov assured him that the Russian plan is to fight the Islamic State, the Secretary of State is not accepting the statement “at face value, because we look at the type of airplanes or the types of munitions and so forth, and it obviously raises much more serious questions about what is happening”.

He said Moscow is proposing a “military-to-military conversation”, aimed at ensuring that Russian and US-led coalition forces do not clash in Syrian airspace and on the ground.

In the latest report of the Russian military build-up in western Syria, a US official said four helicopters have arrived at an expanding airbase.

Satellite images confirmed the arrival of the helicopters, as well as newly-paved areas, tanks, and other equipment.

Videos: Search for Survivors After Deadly Regime Airstrikes on Aleppo on Wednesday-Thursday

Men look for survivors in the rubble of buildings after a regime airstrike on a residential area in the opposition-controlled Kalasa section of Aleppo city on Wednesday:

The Local Coordination Committees said 27 people were killed in and near Aleppo on Wednesday, among 70 deaths across Syria.

Activists says scores more people have been killed and wounded today in opposition-held areas, including at least 27 dead and 47 injured in the al-Mash’had district.

Aftermath of an attack in eastern Aleppo city on Thursday:

Jaish al-Islam Deputy Commander Killed in Offensive Near Damascus

Mahmoud al-Ajwah, a deputy commander in the rebel faction Jaish al-Islam, has been killed in the offensive northeast of Damascus.

Jaish al-Islam commander Zahran Alloush, a close friend of Ajwah, attended the funeral on Wednesday.

ALLOUSH DEPUTY FUNERAL

The rebel coalition led by Jaish al-Islam took territory last week in the initial attacks in the long-planned offensive, particularly between Adra and Harasta. It claimed “hundreds” of regime casualties, as it cut the main Damascus-to-Homs highway.

See Syria Daily, Sept 14: Rebel Offensives Near Damascus and Close to “Assad’s Heartland”

The Syrian military has tried to counter-attack, with better weather supporting airstrikes, but so far there are no confirmed reports that it has regained territory.