The US is struggling to bring so-called moderate militants from Syria and train them in Turkey and Jordan to fight the ISIL Takfiri terrorists, Pentagon officials acknowledge.

Of the 6,000 people who have volunteered to be part of the program, only "100 to 200" fighters have actively begun training, Pentagon spokesman Colonel Steve Warren said Thursday.

"This is a very difficult operation to undertake," Warren said, adding one factor causing the problems, has been the "exfiltration" of qualified militants in Syria.

He described the process of getting them out of Syria to the training sites very risky, noting none of them at the training sites has completed the program yet.

The Pentagon has planned to bring individuals not associated with ISIL or al-Qaeda affiliates out of Syria and teach them skills they can use in their country to fight against the ISIL.

The Obama administration launched the program earlier this year after he was pressurized by Congress, which set aside $500 million to finance the scheme.

So far, about 6,000 militants from Syria have volunteered for training, but only 1,500 have passed the first stage of selection and about 500 have been turned down for various reasons.

The plan was to train nearly 3,000 during the rest of 2015 and about 5,400 every 12 months following that.

"The Syria train-and-equip program is even more challenging than the Iraq train-and-equip program," Defense Secretary Ashton Carter told the House Armed Services Committee Wednesday.

In addition to the problems in implementing the plan, there are still strategic differences between the US and its partners in the region, including Turkey.

Washing is also confronted with training soldiers in Iraq to fight the ISIL.

"Our training efforts in Iraq have thus far been slowed by a lack of trainees. We simply haven’t received enough recruits," Carter said Wednesday.

Recent setbacks in Iraq and Syria have raised serious questions about President Barack Obama’s strategy against ISIL terrorists, who currently control some areas of both countries.

AT/AT