Pentagon welcomes advance of IS fighting alliance

Washington: A coalition that includes Syrian Arab groups and allies regained a swath of territory in northeastern Syria near the town of al-Hawl from Islaic State militants a US military spokesman said Wednesday.

The fighters who are from the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and its Syrian Arab Coalition subgroup regained 87 square miles (255 square kilometers) US military spokesman Colonel Steve Warren said.

The group "conducted an attack... driving ISIL back" Warren said by videoconference from Baghdad using an alternate acronym for IS.

"This is not a large tactical action" he said but "we are encouraged by what we saw."

Warren said the United States considers the matter a success and added that it has intentions to "reinforce" the action seeming to suggest that other ammunition air drops would take place.

The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) were formed in mid-October as an alliance between the powerful Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) and other Syrian rebel groups.

The Pentagon's announcement about the advance comes just one day after the New York Times published an article calling into question the capabilities of the SDF and its subgroup the Syrian Arab Coalition.

The SDF it said drew most of its power from Kurdish militias -- not quite the coalition of Arabs and Kurds it claimed to be.

Meanwhile the name "Syrian Arab Coalition" one senior official said was "an American invention." The group is supposed to have 4000 to 5000 fighters.

The US military has already scrapped a $500 million program to build a rebel army to fight IS after many candidates failed to pass the screening process and one group gave equipment to an Al-Qaeda affiliate.

After the debacle the United States decided to simply supply equipment and air support to certain rebel groups particularly in northern Syria.

In mid-October it parachuted 50 tons of small-arms ammunition and rockets to rebels fighting IS.

Meanwhile on Friday the White House announced that US President Barack Obama had authorized the first sustained deployment of special forces to Syria reversing a long-standing refusal to put US boots on the ground.

The president okayed a deployment of "fewer than 50" special operations personnel in the north of the war-ravaged nation.

The al-Hawl offensive was supported by 17 air strikes that included A10s (anti-tank aircraft) and an AC-130 Specter gunship (ground attack aircraft) from Incirlik Turkey Warren said.

AFP