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British troops are on the ground in Syria fighting alongside the New Syrian Army against the Islamic State group, reported The Times on Monday. The British were only known to be training forces in Jordan, but British troops frequently cross the border to help former special forces who defected from Bashar al-Assad’s army “with logistics, like building defences to make the bunkers safe,” First Lieutenant Mahmoud al-Saleh told The Times.
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The New Syrian Army has since May been defending the village of al-Tanf, near the Syria-Jordanian border, from regular shelling by the Islamic State group. The British soldiers helped rebuild the town after a suicide bombing last month, reported The Times.
The British parliament voted in December to join international airstrikes on Syria, but the country's role on the ground had not been previously disclosed.
This week also saw the launching of major offensive against the IS group on several fronts.
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U.S.-backed Syrian fighters have surrounded the Islamic State-held city of Manbij from three sides as they press an offensive against the jihadists near the Turkish border, a spokesman for the fighters said on Monday.
The Syria Democratic Forces (SDF), including the powerful Kurdish YPG militia and Arab allies, launched the attack last week with the ultimate aim of dislodging Islamic State from its last foothold at the Syrian-Turkish frontier.
The Syrian army also crossed the boundary of Raqqa province after advancing in a major Russian-backed offensive against Islamic State group militants, the monitor group Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Saturday as a Kurdish-Arab alliance advanced against the group in the northern border regions.
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