{UAH} IS conflict: US forces support new assault near Raqqa stronghold

IS conflict: US forces support new assault near Raqqa stronghold

• 54 minutes ago
• From the section Middle East

   

Image copyright Reuters

Image caption Rex Tillerson said it was the "policy of the US to demolish and destroy this barbaric terrorist organisation"

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US forces are helping coalition allies in a new assault on a key area in the IS stronghold of Raqqa province in Syria, the Pentagon has confirmed.

US-supported fighters have been airlifted by the American military in a bid to retake Tabqa dam.

The development came as a US-led coalition met in Washington to discuss the battle against IS.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said it was "only a matter of time" until IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was killed.

Wednesday's gathering at the State Department was the first summit of the full 68-member group since December 2014.

'Cut IS off'

The Pentagon said US aircraft had dropped allied Syrian rebel infantry forces near Tabqa, 45km (28 miles) west of Raqqa, on the Euphrates River.

It said the aim was to seize the dam, which provides regional electricity. There is also a military airfield and a prison holding IS hostages there.

Spokesman Eric Pohan would not say how many US personnel were involved, but told the Associated Press that no American troops were engaged in front-line fighting.

He said the dam was "significant as a strategic target'' whose capture would "basically cut IS off'' from western approaches to Raqqa city.

The US allies, the Syrian Democratic Forces, said their fighters had seized four villages south of the Euphrates. The aim was both to capture Tabqa and to curb advances by Syrian government advances in the area.

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Plans to do more: BBC defence correspondent Jonathan Marcus

The use of a US-provided airlift and fire support to facilitate an operation by its Syrian allies marks a small but significant stepping up of Washington's military role on the ground in Syria.

So far President Trump has sought to reinforce the previous administration's approach on Syria - putting in artillery and more troops on the ground and expanding what US forces can actually do.

US advisers, for example, are now much closer to the frontline and better able to help co-ordinate operations. It's still not clear what the full extent of US involvement in the Tabqa dam assault may be.

But news of the mission comes on the day that the Trump administration is setting out its approach to countering and destroying IS - the clear implication being that Mr Trump plans to do more.

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Meanwhile, Mr Tillerson told the coalition that the US was "ready to grow stronger and stay aggressive in this battle" against so-called Islamic State.

It was the "policy of the US to demolish and destroy this barbaric terrorist organisation", he said.

Mr Tillerson told the summit that the coalition should be encouraged by the progress it was making.

He said the flow of foreign fighters into Syria and Iraq was down by 90% over the past year.

"It is harder for terrorists to get in and more importantly harder for them to get out to threaten our homelands," Mr Tillerson said.

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Read more

Unravelling the Syrian puzzle

Inside 'Islamic State': A Raqqa diary

Islamic State group: The full story

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He said that "nearly all" of the deputies of IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi were now dead.

"It is only a matter of time before Baghdadi himself meets this same fate," Mr Tillerson said.

Mr Tillerson admitted that "a more defined course of action in Syria is still coming together" but he spoke of working to "establish interim zones of stability, through ceasefires, to allow refugees to return home".

The BBC's Barbara Plett Usher, in Washington, says the secretary of state did not specify whether that would mean safe zones protected by coalition forces.

Image copyright AP

Image caption Mr Tillerson said the flow of foreign fighters into Syria and Iraq was being severed

Mr Tillerson also told the summit: "The United States will do its part, but the circumstances on the ground require more from all of you.

"I ask each country to examine how it can best support these vital stabilisation efforts."

Separately, at least 33 people were killed in an air strike on a school in a village west of Raqqa on Monday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said.

Image copyright Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently

Image caption An activist group posted a photograph of what it said was the destroyed school in al-Mansoura, west of Raqqa

It believed the raid was carried out US-led coalition jets. The coalition has made no immediate comment.

It did say there had been 19 air strikes near Raqqa on Monday, including three that destroyed IS "headquarters", and that there were another 18 on Tuesday.

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