US-backed Syrian alliance declares 1st anti-ISIS attack

A US-backed Syrian rebel alliance on Saturday announced a fresh offensive against ISIS in the northeast province of Hasaka, a day after the United States said it would send special forces to advise insurgents fighting the jihadists.

It was the first declared operation by the Democ-ratic Forces of Syria, which joins together a US-backed Kurdish militia and several Syrian Arab rebel groups, since it announced its formation earlier in October.

“We announce today the start of the first step in our military operations,” a spokesman for the alliance’s general command said in Arabic in a video statement posted on Youtube.

World powers and regional rivals are convening in Vienna to seek a solution to the four-year conflict in Syria that has escalated since Russia intervened with an intense air campaign.

The video showed several dozen men in fatigues standing outdoors with yellow flags and banners carrying the name of the Democratic Forces of Syria in Arabic and Kurdish.

The Kurdish YPG has been working closely with the US-led anti-ISIS coalition since early 2015, and has to date proved Washington’s most effective partner on the ground against ISIS in Syria.

The US, which annou-nced on Friday it was to station its first ground troops in Syria for the war on ISIS, has dropped ammunition to rebels in the north of Syria but without specifying which group the aid was intended for.

“With the participation of all the factions... And with support and coordination with the planes of the international coalition to fight Daesh, we announce the start of the liberation of the southern countryside of Hasa-ka,” the spokesman said, using an Arabic acronym for ISIS.