The United States has sent a Marine Corps artillery battery into Syria to help defeat the ISIS group in Raqa, the capital of their supposed caliphate, a US official has said.
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 Raqa, the official told AFP on Wednesday confirming a report in the Washington Post.
The move marks a significant step for conventional US forces in Syria.
Currently, the United States has limited its ground troops to about 500 special operations fighters whose job has been to train and assist the SDF, a local Arab-Kurdish alliance fighting ISIS.