Kurdish militia fighters, backed by Arab rebels, have driven IS from large parts of northern Syria
The
US military has delivered more than 45 tonnes of ammunition to rebels
fighting the jihadist group Islamic State (IS) in north-eastern Syria.
C-17
transport aircraft, accompanied by fighter escorts, dropped pallets of
supplies overnight in Hassakeh province, a Pentagon spokesman said.
The consignment reportedly comprised small arms, ammunition and grenades.
It comes days after the US abandoned a $500m (£326m) plan to train thousands of "moderate" rebels to fight IS.
The
money will instead be used to provide much-needed ammunition and some
weapons to commanders of rebel groups already established on the ground.
'Raqqa offensive'
The
Pentagon said the more than 100 pallets dropped in Hassakeh were
collected safely. They were intended for Syrian Arab groups whose
leaders have been vetted and who enjoy the confidence of the US-led
coalition battling IS, it added.
The YPG and Arab rebel groups announced the formation of new alliance on Monday
Analysis: Jonathan Marcus, BBC defence correspondent
This
is indicative of the type of activity the US is likely to step up in
the wake of the failure of its larger scheme to recruit train and equip a
new opposition army.
The stress now is on vetting the leaders of opposition militias rather than each and every member.
Small
arms and ammunition may be important in terms of keeping a specific
group in the fight, but it is heavier weaponry - like the supply of
US-made TOW anti-tank missiles to other groups - that has made the most
impact on the battlefield.
The battle for Syria and Iraq in maps
Syria's civil war explained
A
spokesman for one of the groups, the Raqqa Revolutionaries Front, told
the Reuters news agency that they had been told that the supplies were
to help them launch a joint offensive on the city of Raqqa - an IS
stronghold - with the Kurdish Popular Protection Units (YPG) militia.
The
Raqqa Revolutionaries Front and the YPG are part of an alliance of Arab
and Kurdish groups, called the Democratic Forces of Syria, whose
creation was announced on Monday.
In a statement sent to Reuters news agency, the YPG
said "rapid developments on the military and political front" require "a
united national military force for all Syrians, joining Kurds, Arabs,
Syriacs and other groups".
YPG fighters, backed by Arab rebels and
US-led coalition air strikes, have driven IS from large parts of
northern Syria in the past year and now control much of Hassakeh. The
Syrian government also has a presence in the provincial capital.
Russian strikes intensify
Meanwhile
in north-western Syria, Russian jets reportedly intensified their
attacks on rebel positions on the Sahl al-Ghab plain, as government
forces battled to regain control of the strategic area.
Fighting was focused on the village of Kafr Nabudeh, in Hama province, activists and officials said.
Rebels have repelled attacks on Kafr Nabudeh, whose
fall would give government forces access to Idlib province
Capturing the area would cut off a key motorway and
give government forces access to Idlib province, most of which is
controlled by a rebel alliance.
The Russian defence ministry said
it had bombed 53 Islamic State targets in the provinces of Hama, Homs,
Latakia and Idlib over the past 24 hours. However, the jihadist group is
believed to have only a limited presence in Hama.
The UN envoy
for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, said he hoped Russia and the US would
agree to form the core of one or more "contact groups" of countries
supporting talks on a political solution to the Syrian conflict.
Speaking
at a press conference on Monday, Russian defence minister Sergei Lavrov
said he was "interested in establishing a coalition" between the US-led
forces targeting Islamic State from the air and the Russian military.
Mr
Lavrov said he had asked "those who claim to know the situation on the
ground better" to provide Russian forces with the location of IS
militants but said they "have yet to reply".
He also said Russia
was prepared to cooperate with Syria's "so called patriotic opposition"
but required information about their positions.
Russia was also
involved in anti-IS operations closer to home, it said on Monday, with
the arrest of a group of Russian citizens in Moscow.
The FSB security agency said in a statement that some of those
detained had gone through IS training camps in Syria and were suspected
of planning an attack on Russian soil.Explosives and bomb-making equipment were found at an address in Moscow used by the suspects, the agency said.
More
than 250,000 people have been killed since the uprising against
President Bashar al-Assad erupted in 2011. Some 11.5 million others -
more than half of the country's population - have fled their homes.
