Washington, January 17 (RHC)-- The U.S. military says it plans to deploy about 1,000 troops to train the so-called moderate Syrian militants to fight against the ISIL terrorist group. The Pentagon announced on Friday that the training is expected to begin in the "early spring" and will take place in Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Qatar.

Pentagon spokesman Rear Admiral John Kirby told a news conference in Washington that the military will deploy some 400 trainers in the region in the next four to six weeks, and also send a similar number of troops to help them carry out the mission. The military spokesman stated that more than 5,400 Syrian militants would receive training and arms in the first year of the program. He noted that in December, the U.S. Congress approved $500 million for the Pentagon venture.

Kirby said the U.S.-trained men will "eventually go on the offensive" against ISIL terrorists and help find "a political solution" to Syria’s nearly four-year-long conflict, which has left tens of thousands people dead.

Syria has been gripped by deadly unrest since April 2011. According to reports, the United States and its regional allies - especially Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey - are supporting the militants operating inside the country.

The ISIL terrorists, who were initially trained by the Central Intelligence Agency in Jordan in 2012 to destabilize the Syrian government, now control large parts Iraq and Syria.

A former CIA contractor said in a recent interview with Press TV that is frustrated for being asked to train the ISIL terrorist group and at the very same time to combat it. “The CIA is being faced with their current task of continuing to arm and train the rebels, which they’ve admitted to doing – the so-called Free Syrian Army, and at the same time being asked to combat the group ISIL, which it is getting harder and harder for them to mask that it’s essentially the same group,” said the former CIA employee, Steven D. Kelley.