US Cuts Ties With Local Syrian Group

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The U.S.-led coalition fighting Islamic State is cutting ties with a local Syrian partner force who "engaged in activities not focused on fighting ISIS," a coalition spokesman said Thursday.

Army Colonel Ryan Dillon told reporters that American forces were "in the process of ceasing our support and receiving the equipment" provided to the group Shohada al-Qartyan (ShQ) to fight Islamic State militants in southern Syria.

"We have made it very clear time and again that our goal in Syria and in Iraq is to fight ISIS and to fight ISIS only," Dillon said, using the common acronym for Islamic State. "Our partner forces, we've asked them to be committed to that same mission."

Two U.S. officials confirmed to reporters that the group targeted pro-Syrian regime forces located outside southern Syria's so-called deconfliction zone, which for months has been established as the area within a 55-kilometer radius of the al-Tanf garrison, where coalition forces are training counter-IS fighters.

One official confirmed that this was not the first time Shohada al-Qartyan had carried out these types of attacks.