U.S. drops ammo to aid in fight against ISIL
WASHINGTON • U.S. cargo planes have dropped smallarms ammunition to Arab groups fighting the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in northern Syria, a military spokesman said Monday.
The airdrop was conducted Sunday by air force C-17 cargo planes, Col. Steve Warren, a spokesman in Baghdad, said by email. He did not identify the Arab groups that received the supplies but said their leaders had been vetted and have been fighting to remove ISIL from northern Syria.
In central Syria, Russian jets intensified airstrikes as government forces battled insurgents in a strategic area near a rebel-held province and a government stronghold.
The government push is the latest in a bid to regain the Sahl al-Ghab plain, which is adjacent to Latakia province, a strong-
Russian jets intensified airstrikes
hold of President Bashar Assad and the Alawite religious minority to which he belongs.
The Russian defence ministry said it struck 53 alleged ISIL targets in a 24-hour period, destroying command centres, ammunition and fuel depots as well as training camps allegedly used by foreign terrorists.
Near the northern Syrian city of Kobani, a Kurdish official and the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the People’s Protection Units (YPG) and other factions have formed a “Forces of Democratic Syria” coalition whose main aim is to fight ISIL.
The official, Mustafa Bali, confirmed the U.S. had provided more than 100 tonnes of weapons and ammunition to YPG, the main Kurdish militia battling ISIL in that area. Bali said he did not know whether the supplies had been provided by air or over land.
The coalition includes Arab, Kurdish and Assyrian rebel factions that have been fighting ISIL over the past year.
In Moscow, security officials said Monday they had thwarted a planned attack on Moscow public transport system by terrorists aligned to ISIL. Several terror suspects — some of whom, intelligence officials say, were trained by ISIL in Syria — were arrested on Sunday.