The U.S.-led coalition is readying an offensive to put pressure on the de facto ISIS capital, Raqqa, military and White House officials said Monday. President Obama has reportedly approved measures to support Arab fighters, whose commanders have been screened by American forces and Kurdish fighters, as a part of an offensive backed by dozens of coalition warplanes to weaken the extremists’ main stronghold in Syria’s northern front. Obama, for the first time, ordered the Pentagon to directly provide ammunition and possibly weapons to Syrian opposition forces on the ground and also approved an increase in airstrikes from an air base in Turkey. The coalition is also working with Syrian opposition fighters to seal off a 60-mile part of Syria’s border with Turkey in an effort to cut off critical ISIS supply lines.
