US-led coalition air drops Syrian rebel forces in Raqqa province

The U.S.-led coalition has airlifted Syrian rebel forces to an operation near the Syrian town of Tabqa in Raqqa province while providing them with fire support, U.S. defense officials said on March 22.

Maj. Adrian Rankine-Galloway, a Pentagon spokesman, said U.S. air assets had been used to airlift members of the Syrian Arab Coalition, part of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) group, in a bid to retake the Tabqa Dam. 

"Coalition forces are assisting the Syrian Arab Coalition with airlift and fire support in an operation to seize the Tabqa dam," Pentagon spokesman Rankine-Galloway said, according to AFP. 

He did not provide details on the size of the forces moved or what type of fire support was provided.

The SDF mainly consists of Syrian Kurdish People's Protection Unit (YPG) forces, which are the military wing of the Syrian Democratic Union Party (PYD). 

Turkey regards the PYD and YPG as terror organizations due to their links to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and are at odds with the U.S. over the designation of the YPG and PYD. 

The operation aims both to capture the strategic Tabqa area across the Euphrates River from the SDF's other holdings and to curb Syrian government advances in that direction, the U.S.-backed alliance of militias said in a statement on a social media feed. 

Pentagon's statement came hours after another statement from the SDF on social media, in which it also said the U.S.-led coalition had air-dropped U.S. and allied Syrian forces near Tabqa. 

"American forces have conducted a landing operation for U.S. ground forces, along with special forces" from the Raqqa campaign, the SDF statement said. 

The landing forces seized four small villages in the...