US Deepens Involvement in Syria

US attack helicopters ferried Arab and Kurdish fighters to the front lines in northern Syria, in a move that suggests the Trump Administration is taking a more aggressive approach against Islamic State, which remains entrenched in northern Raqqa. The US forces did not engage in ground combat, but the use of attack helicopters and artillery was a first. “This is pretty major,” Col. Joseph Scrocca, a spokesman for the U.S.-led military coalition that is fighting the Islamic State militants in Syria and Iraq, told reporters at the Pentagon on Wednesday. He said it was the first time US forces have airlifted local fighters into combat in Syria. An undisclosed number of U.S. military advisers were inserted with the rebels.