ISTANBUL — A US-led programme to train Syrian rebels to fight the Daesh (the so-called IS) militants will start in May, Turkey's Defense Minister Ismet Yilmaz was quoted as saying by the state-run Anadolu news agency on Tuesday. US officials have said they plan to train about 5,000 Syrian fighters a year for three years as part of a campaign against the Daesh forces in Iraq and Syria. Details on the training have been scant, although it had previously been planned to start this month. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Friday that the program had been delayed by Washington, but described the delay as minor and said that in technical and political terms, everything was otherwise on track. Meanwhile, the Spanish Interior Ministry said police on Tuesday arrested four members of a family, including 16-year-old twin boys who were allegedly about to travel to Syria to become militant fighters. A ministry statement said the parents and their sons were arrested in the northeastern city of Badalona, near Barcelona. The ministry said the four were Moroccan nationals. The statement said the boys were suspected of planning to travel to Morocco on Tuesday before going to Turkey and finally Syria. The ministry said authorities believe an older brother joined the Daesh group in Syria and died last year. In Sofia, eight Bulgarians were charged with propagating an extremist ideology and incitement to war, prosecutors said on Tuesday, as investigations continued into suspected sympathizers of the Daesh group. Six men were detained in a police swoop in the southern towns of Plovdiv, Pazardzhik and Asenovgrad after new evidence was found following Daesh-related arrests last year. Another two Bulgarians were charged in absentia and European arrest warrants were issued for them, the prosecutors said. — Agencies
