WASHINGTON: The United States said Tuesday it had started distributing arms to a Syrian Kurdish group battling to help retake Raqqa from Daesh (ISIS), as the forces reached the city’s northern entrance.

Pentagon spokesman Maj. Adrian Rankine-Galloway said the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces received small arms and vehicles from the U.S. military.

He believed the arms were distributed earlier Tuesday.

Another U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the distribution of the weapons had started in the past 24 hours, based on authority given by President Donald Trump earlier this month.

There was no immediate reaction from Turkey, which has warned the U.S. that its decision to arm Kurdish forces fighting Daesh in Syria could end up hurting Washington.

Washington says that arming the Kurdish forces is necessary to recapturing Raqqa, Daesh’s de facto capital in Syria and a hub for planning attacks against the West.

Tuesday’s advance by the SDF brings the group to about 3 kilometers from the city where a long and deadly battle is expected in the coming weeks, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights activist group said.

The latest push comes as airstrikes have intensified in recent days. U.S.-backed fighters have pushed in toward the city, getting closer from all sides. The SDF has captured dozens of towns and villages since November, when it began an operation dubbed “Euphrates Wrath,” aiming to eventually surround and capture Raqqa. SDF fighters have surrounded Raqqa from the north, west and east. The militants still have an exit from the south, even though the U.S.-led coalition destroyed two southern bridges over the Euphrates River.

The Observatory said SDF fighters captured gas and water facilities on the northern edge of Raqqa. The group posted a video showing Daesh flags still flying over the northern entrance of Raqqa with a giant banner reading, “The northern sector thanks you for your visit. The Islamic State.”The activist-operated Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently said that the U.S.-led coalition targeted areas of fighting north of the city near a major Daesh base known as Division 17.

The Sound and Picture Organization, which documents Daesh violations, said SDF fighters approached the Mashlab neighborhood east of Raqqa. RBSS said SDF fighters captured a main checkpoint at the entrance of Mashlab but did not enter the area. The Observatory and RBSS reported a land mine exploded near a vehicle west of the city killing three people and wounding 10.

In other developments, the Pentagon said pro-Syrian regime forces are again massing close to where U.S.-led warplanes bombed them this month, raising the likelihood of additional strikes. Coalition planes on May 18 pounded the front of a convoy that had apparently been headed toward the Al-Tanf garrison, where coalition commandos have been training and advising local forces fighting the Daesh. That strike occurred inside an established “de-escalation zone” northwest of the garrison, and the Pentagon says it appeared that the forces were trying to build a “fire base” for artillery units.

The de-escalation zones are agreed upon between Russia and the coalition, and are designed to stop either side inadvertently striking the other’s forces on the ground and in the air.

“We continue to see massing, we are concerned about it,” Pentagon spokesman Navy Capt. Jeff Davis said, noting that “hundreds” of troops were in the area, though smaller numbers were actually inside the de-escalation zone. Coalition planes dropped leaflets over the weekend warning the pro-regime troops to stay away, he added.

“We have seen them patrolling in the vicinity of the established de-confliction zone, around the Al-Tanf training site,” Davis said.

Earlier Tuesday, meanwhile, Syria’s state media and the Observatory said at least 13 civilians were killed when Daesh militants shelled government-held neighborhoods in the eastern city of Deir al-Zor.

The official state news agency SANA says the shelling hit the neighborhoods of Joura and Qusour late Monday. Daesh has controlled parts of Deir al-Zor since 2015, leaving more than 90,000 people under siege in the government-held areas.

The Observatory said the shelling took place shortly before sundown as residents were preparing to break their dawn-to-sunset fast during the holy month of Ramadan. The Observatory put the death toll at 14.