US military instructors trained Takfiri militants of the so-called Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) at a secret base in Jordan in 2012, informed Jordanian officials say.
The officials, who were not identified, revealed to American news website WorldNetDaily (WND) that dozens of ISIL members received training as part of covert aid to militants fighting to overthrow Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
The Jordanian officials said the 2012 training of the ISIL operatives was not supposed to be used for any future offensive in Iraq.
They said all ISIL militants trained in Jordan had been vetted for any links to terrorist groups like al-Qaeda.
German weekly Der Spiegel had also reported last March that Americans were training militants in Jordan for fighting in Syria.
WND further reported that, according to a source in contact with a high official in the government of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, the Obama administration has been aware for two months that the al-Qaida-inspired group, which has taken over two Iraqi cities and now is threatening Baghdad, was also training fighters in Turkey.
The source told WND that at least one of the ISIL training camps is in the vicinity of Turkish air base, Incirlik, which houses American personnel and equipment.
After being trained in Turkey, thousands of ISIL militants sneaked into Iraq to wreak havoc on the country.
Over the past days, Iraqi armed forces have been engaged in fierce clashes with the ISIL terrorists, who have threatened to take their acts of violence to other Iraqi cities, including the capital, Baghdad.
However, their advance has been slowed down as Iraqi military forces and volunteer fighters have begun engaging them on several fronts, pushing the militants out of several areas they had earlier overrun.
