A US-backed Kurdish-Arab alliance on Friday fought fiercely to drive ISIS from a hilltop north of the extremists' de facto Syrian capital of Raqqa.
The fighting took place as a senior official with the Syrian Democratic Forces told AFP that US-led coalition forces had not only provided weapons to the alliance but was also engaged in combat on the ground.
The SDF -- which on November 5 launched an offensive to retake Raqqa city with support from the coalition -- encircled the village of Tal Saman, 25 kilometers (15 miles) from Raqqa.
Fighting also raged between the SDF and ISIS inside Tal Saman, an officer said after returning from the front.
"The jihadists have sent three car bombs since Thursday. Our forces managed to blow them up," Farhad Kurdistan said.
"Our forces are using heavy weapons because Daesh is putting up tough resistance," he said, using an Arabic acronym for ISIS.
SDF fighters said Tal Saman offers a view of surrounding rocky desert terrain and villages near Raqqa, which has been under ISIS control since 2014.
"Daesh is resisting because Tal Saman is on a hill from which one can see the villages" outside Raqqa city, another officer said, asking to remain anonymous.
Nasser Hajj Mansur, an adviser to the SDF general command, said the alliance had received better weaponry from the international coalition against ISIS.
"The coalition was already supporting us in the Raqqa campaign by supplying arms, equipment, troop transport, armor and ammunition," he said.
"But recently, the deliveries have become greater, both in terms of quantity and quality," he told AFP, without going into specifics.
He said "the actions of coalition forces are not confined to advice and air coordination, they are directly involved in operations on the ground".
In neighboring Iraq, US-backed forces are also pressing an assault to retake the ISIS bastion of Mosul from the extremists.
The battle against ISIS in both countries is taking place against the backdrop of a conflict in Syria that has killed more than 300,000 people since it erupted with anti-government protests in 2011.
It has since escalated into a complex, multi-faceted war.
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