U.S. deploys mobile missile system to eastern Syria
U.N. says ‘de-escalation’ has not helped aid effort
BEIRUT — The U.S. has deployed a truck-mounted missile system into Syria, an official said Wednesday, to a forward operating group of rebels and U.S. military advisers who have repeatedly clashed with government forces.
The deployment raises the stakes in eastern Syria, where Iranian-sponsored pro-government forces have outflanked U.S. advisers and rebels holding the Tanf border crossing to establish their own link to Iraq for the first time in years.
They are now waiting for proiranian forces to link up with them on the Iraqi side of the border, while preparing to march on Islamic State positions to the north, in the Euphrates River Valley.
Shifting the HIMARS missile system into eastern Syria from Jordan will give the U.S. a precise, longrange weapon to protect its advisers and allies and to attack IS militants further downfield.
The deployment also insures that the military can protect itself when weather would limit the ability of strike aircraft to reach there in time.
The Pentagon official requested anonymity, to discuss unannounced military movements.
U.s.-backed rebels were advancing north along the Syrian-iraqi frontier when pro-government forces cut them off with a flanking maneuver last week.
U.S. special forces operators are embedded with the rebels in an advisory capacity, the Pentagon says, though they have fought alongside their allies in defense battles.
The U.S. central military command has said it remains committed to reaching and defeating the IS group in its strongholds along the Euphrates.
Meanwhile, a U.N. investigative commission for Syria reported that last month’s “de-escalation” agreement has reduced violence in only one of the four zones included in the deal and has not led to greater humanitarian access to besieged areas.
Underscoring the ongoing violence, airstrikes and artillery shells pummeled areas of southern Daraa province Wednesday, leaving at least eight people dead, first responders and activists said.
A western diplomat said that the U.S., Russia, and Jordan were holding closed-door meetings in Amman to halt the fighting between rebels and the government in southern Syria.
The three states are debating the boundaries of a cease-fire line between the government and rebels, the diplomat said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
On Wednesday, activists and rescue workers reported at least 12 airstrikes and artillery shelling in different areas of Daraa, the southern province divided between insurgents and government forces. Syrian Civil Defense first responders, reported airstrikes on a school that served as a shelter for displaced people in the province’s west.
Initial reports said at least eight people from the same family were killed, according to the first responders.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights put the death toll at nine. A video from first responders distributed on social media shows bodies strewn on the floor as rescuers search for survivors, lifting children out of the rubble amid wails from women.