The plan seemed simple: find Syrian fighters that the United States can work with and train them. After spending more than $500 million with little to show for it, the Obama administration is walking away from that part of the fight, reports The New York Times.

Senior officials at the White House and the Pentagon said the strategy to pull fighters out of Syria, teach them advanced skills and return them to face the Islamic State had failed, in part because many of the rebel groups were more focused on fighting the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad.

But officials said they were trying to adapt their strategy by seeking to identify the leaders of “capable, indigenous forces” in Syria who — after what the officials described as a vigorous vetting process — will be the first time the Pentagon has given military equipment to rebel leaders to distribute to their forces engaged in fighting on the ground. The C.I.A. has for some time been covertly training and arming groups fighting Mr. Assad.

So far the Pentagon is only calling the pullback an "operational pause." Officials have not ruled out future training, and supplying certain fighters with "basic" munitions, likely small arms, will continue.