Syria Crisis: US Marine Deploy Artillery Battery

Local Editor

In its continuous  illegal intervention in Syria, the US had sent a Marine Corps artillery battery into Syria to help defeat Daesh [Arabic acronym for "ISIS" / "ISIL'] in Raqqa, the capital of their self-styled "caliphate", a US official said Wednesday.

The official said troops from the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit had deployed a battery of 155mm Howitzers to an outpost in Syria.

The Marines "are ready to conduct their mission" to support the offensive on Raqqa, the official told AFP, confirming a report in the Washington Post.

The move marks a significant step for conventional US forces in Syria.

Currently, the US has limited its ground troops to about 500 special operations fighters whose job had been to train and assist the SDF, a local Arab-Kurdish alliance fighting Daesh.

According to the Post, the artillery deployment had been in the works "for some time" and was not part of President Donald Trump's demand for a new plan to increase the pace of the anti-Daesh war.

The artillery will allow the Marines to help support the SDF offensive, which had been gradually closing in on Raqqa since last fall.

The Pentagon this week announced that it had also sent extra troops into Manbij to prevent competing factions fighting each other in the former Daesh stronghold.

US officials estimate there to be up to 4,000 extremists in Raqqa, a city of about 300,000 residents.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team