Beirut // The US-led coalition against ISIL parachuted ammunition to rebels battling the extremists in northern Syria as regime troops aided by Russian air strikes fought their fiercest clashes with rebels in weeks on Monday.
“Coalition forces conducted an airdrop Sunday in northern Syria to resupply local counter-ISIL ground forces as they conduct operations against ISIL,” said Colonel Patrick Ryder, spokesman for the US military’s central command.
Col Ryder said the airdrop was for Syrian Arab groups whose leaders were “appropriately vetted by the United States and have been fighting to remove ISIL from northern Syria”.
Another US official said the drop included 50 tonnes of ammunition.
Several Arab rebel groups and Syria’s leading Kurdish militia formalised their alliance on Sunday in a new group called the Syrian Democratic Forces.
Syrian troops and allied forces gained ground in the central province of Hama on Monday, advancing on the strategic Sahl Al Ghab plain backed by Russian air power.
Syria’s army said regime forces had captured Kafr Nabuda village in Hama, extending their advance around the key Damascus-Aleppo highway.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the army had captured Mansoura village in the Sahl Al Ghab plain.
“The clashes are the fiercest since the Russian air campaign began on September 30,” said Observatory chief Rami Abdelrahman, adding that dozens of Russian air strikes hit Sahl Al Ghab on Monday.
The province lies at the intersection of the provinces of Hama, Latakia and Idlib, and has been a major target for Russian strikes.
Idlib province is controlled by the powerful Army of Conquest rebel alliance which includes Al Qaeda affiliate Al Nusra Front.
They have sought to advance into Sahl Al Ghab and on towards Latakia province, the coastal stronghold of the regime and the home to president Bashar Al Assad’s ancestral village.
Syria’s army also reported advances in northern Latakia province and said regime forces had taken control of the “duty free zone” outside Aleppo in the north.
Moscow said on Monday that its air force had hit 53 targets in Syria in the previous 24 hours – in Hama, Homs, Latakia and Idlib provinces.
Russia’s air strikes in Syria began on September 30, with Moscow saying it was targeting ISIL and other “terrorists”.
But rebels and their backers accuse Moscow of focusing on moderate opposition fighters.
Despite Russia intensifying its raids, the UN’s peace envoy to Syria said he was heading to Moscow to promote a political end to the conflict.
Staffan de Mistura said he would travel to Moscow and then Washington as he struggles to push his initiative for a political settlement.
He acknowledged that Russia’s air strikes had “introduced new dynamics” to the brutal conflict.
European Union foreign ministers demanded on Monday that Moscow stop targeting non-extremist rebels and said lasting peace in Syria was impossible without a transition from Assad’s rule.
“The recent Russian military attacks that go beyond Daesh and other UN-designated terrorist groups, as well as on the moderate opposition, are of deep concern and must cease immediately,” the ministers said.
The statement also reiterated the need for a political transition to end the conflict that began with anti-government protests in March 2011.
“There cannot be a lasting peace in Syria under the present leadership,” the EU ministers said.
More than 240,000 people have been killed in the conflict and upwards of four million Syrians have become refugees.
In Baghdad, meanwhile, security services said on Monday that they were checking reports that ISIL chief Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi had been wounded in a strike on his convoy.
“We are still collecting and cross-checking information to reach an accurate assessment,” interior ministry spokesman Saad Maan said.
Iraq’s security forces said their warplanes had hit Baghdadi’s convoy as it was heading to an ISIL leadership meeting in Karabla near the border with Syria.
* Agence France-Presse