US aircraft conducted a “show of force” flight over an ISIS position near the Syrian city of al Bab earlier this week, but didn’t drop any bombs because of insufficient ground intelligence and weather impacts. The US-led coalition recently pulled support advisers from the Turkish advance on the town because the country did not work with the coalition in planning to retake the city. However, the recent show of force flights signal a push to increase support to the Turkish advance. Coalition spokesman Air Force Col. John Dorrian said Wednesday that there are high level leadership and diplomatic discussions with Turkey to provide more support to this advance, while Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Wednesday it is expected to be finished “soon,” Reuters reported. “We supported with a show of force recently and there are ongoing discussions about the manner in which we’ll support in the future,” Dorrian said.
The U.S. is moving to surge firepower over Iran, including its capital of Tehran, defense officials leading the campaign said March 5 at U.S. Central Command headquarters. Bomber strikes are being stepped up and additional fighter squadrons are being deployed.