Pentagon ending program to train, equip Syria rebels

As ISIL militants edge closer to Aleppo, news comes that ' Pentagon ending program to train, equip Syria rebels':

The Pentagon on Friday announced it was ending its failed $500 million program to "train and equip" Syrian rebels and replacing it with a far less ambitious plan, defense officials said [...] Instead of combat training for the rebels, they will now be used as "enablers" to identify ISIS targets on the ground for U.S. and coalition airstrikes.

Ah, the 'colonial' model. The New York Times as usual gets it wrong:

 After struggling for years to identify groups in Syria that it can confidently support, the Obama administration on Friday abandoned its effort to build a rebel force inside Syria to combat the Islamic State. It acknowledged the failure of its $500 million campaign to train thousands of fighters [...].

[UPDATE The Washington Post follows suit, the US is "not" funding anti-Assad rebels to fight Assad after all, they are only there to fight ISIL ISIL, yeah yeah. This forgets the funding started when ISIL was just a twinkle in its foundewr's eye]. Meanwhile while we are all distracted by Russian airstrikes, ISIL is reportedly now within 2 km (1.2 miles) of government-held territory on the northern edge of Aleppo.