Syria regime advances, US drops ammo to anti-IS rebels

  Regime troops aided by Russian air strikes fought their fiercest clashes with rebels in weeks Monday, as US-led coalition forces parachuted ammunition to rebels battling jihadists in northern Syria.

 Meanwhile, the UN's peace envoy to Syria said he was heading to Moscow to promote a political end to the conflict, despite Russia intensifying its raids.

 On Monday, the US said coalition forces had airdropped ammunition to Syrian Arab groups fighting the Islamic State jihadist group in northern Syria.

 "Coalition forces conducted an airdrop Sunday in northern Syria to resupply local counter-ISIL ground forces as they conduct operations against ISIL," US Central Command spokesman Colonel Patrick Ryder said in a statement, using an alternative acronym for IS.

 Speaking on condition of anonymity, a US official told AFP the drop included 50 tons of ammunition.

 Ryder said the ammunition was for Syrian Arab groups whose leaders were "appropriately vetted by the United States and have been fighting to remove ISIL from northern Syria".

 Several Arab rebel groups and Syria's leading Kurdish militia formalised their alliance Sunday in a new group called the Syrian Democratic Forces.

 On Monday, Syrian troops and allied forces gained ground in the central province of Hama, advancing on the strategic Sahl al-Ghab plain backed by Russian air power.

 Syria's army command said regime forces had captured Kafr Nabuda village in Hama, extending their advance around the key Damascus-Aleppo highway.

 And the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the Syrian army had captured Mansoura village in the Sahl al-Ghab plain.

 "The clashes are the fiercest since the Russian air campaign began on September 30," Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman said, adding that dozens of Russian air strikes hit Sahl al-Ghab on Monday.