The airdrop was part of the United States’ revamped strategy for supporting the rebels.
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The U.S. military did not name the individual groups that received the small arms ammunition but said their leaders had been screened by the United States, which wants to avoid weapons falling into the hands of Islamic State and al Qaida-linked fighters.
A USA military official, speaking to Reuters on condition of anonymity, said the U.S. airdrops were part of the new approach.
Videos posted online by pro-Russia outlets, from an area above the village of Tal Skayk in Hama province, showed Syrian troops watching as heavy barrages sent smoke towering from clusters of houses, while a narrator enthusiastically described progress in fighting “terrorists”.
However, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor said clashes were ongoing after regime forces entered the village.
The advances that have posed the most serious threat to Assad have come from a coalition of Islamist insurgents called the Army of Conquest that includes the Nusra Front but not the Islamic State.
The government push is the latest in a bid to regain the Sahl al-Ghab plain, which is adjacent to Latakia province, a stronghold of Mr. Assad and the Alawite religious minority to which he belongs.
Syria’s army command said government forces had captured Kafr Nabuda village in Hama, extending their advance around the key Damascus-Aleppo highway.
A military source, meanwhile, told AFP regime forces had taken at least five villages in northern Latakia province since they began their ground operations in tandem with Russian strikes.
“There will be no peace in Syria if Bashar Assad, who is responsible for most victims of this civil war, can stay”, Desir said.
“I regret and however respect their decision and hope it can evolve”, De Mistura told reporters.
Amnesty’s report suggests that sometimes entire communities have been displaced by Kurdish forces in what it says may have been retaliation for perceived support or links to the Islamic State or other groups.
The source said he was citing positions outlined by Defence Minister and Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir during meetings with President Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Sunday in the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi.
“The recent Russian military attacks … are of deep concern and must cease immediately”, ministers said in a strongly worded statement.
“There can not be a lasting peace in Syria under the present leadership”, the statement stresses.
More than 240,000 people have been killed in Syria’s conflict and upwards of four million Syrians have become refugees.
In one, a bare-chested Putin holds ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi by the collar and says: “Where do you think you’re going?”
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“We are still collecting and cross-checking information to reach an accurate assessment”, interior ministry spokesman Saad Maan said.
