“Our expanded precision airdrop capability is helping ground forces take the offensive to (ISIS) and efforts to retake Raqqa,” said Gen. Carlton Everhart, commander of the Air Mobility Command, which is headquartered from Scott Air Force Base in Illinois, US.
Carlton’s statements were made to USA Today and reported on Tuesday. The US air force reported 16 air drops in Syria in 2016 with six coming in December.
It was not immediately clear if the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) was the only group receiving the supplies, which USA today reported as ranging “from small ammunition to vehicles.”
The US has utilized airdrops to supply its allies on the ground since the 2014 battle for Kobane, when it was criticized for some drops missing their intended marks and finding their way into the hands of ISIS fighters.
Everhart explained that GPS technology allows his airmen to guide their payloads “within 10 or 15 meters of the mark.”
Intensive fighting between the SDF and ISIS in al-Suwaydiyat al-Kabirah, west of Raqqa, and coalition airstrikes against ISIS early Tuesday morning were reported by the SDF and Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
The Kurdish-led SDF have imposed a partial, crescent-shaped siege on Raqqa Province, as they have pushed south and east, in the fifth week of the second phase of the Wrath of Euphrates campaign.
Nuhran Abdi, a SDF commander urged the coalition on Monday to increase support for ground forces.
“We are suffering indeed with regard to weapons. Especially armored vehicles... The global coalition support is not enough, and remains short in supply,” he said.
Turkey, Iran, and Russia are set to broker peace talks in Astana on Jan. 23 between the Syrian government and opposition factions, although previous ceasefire deals have excluded ISIS. Russia and Russia have expressed interest in the US participating in the discussions, but Iran has not.
"We have not invited them, and we are against their presence," Iran's Tasnim news agency quoted Tehran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif as saying.
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