AFP, Riyadh :Saudi Arabia is ready to join any ground operation the US-led coalition against the militant Islamic State group in Syria might decide on, a general from the kingdom said on Thursday.”If there is any willingness in the coalition to go in the ground operation, we will contribute positively in that,” Brigadier General Ahmed al-Assiri told AFP.Assiri is spokesman for a separate Saudi-led Arab coalition which, since March, has conducted air strikes and ground operations in Yemen.That coalition supports the government there in its fight against Houthi rebels who seized much of the country.Saudi Arabia supports certain militant groups against Assad’s forces.Regime troops pressed a major Russian-backed offensive around Aleppo, while Moscow and Ankara traded barbs over the escalating crisis.As the offensive raged, diplomatic tensions were also rising, with Moscow accusing opposition supporter Ankara of preparing to invade Syria, saying it had spotted troops and military equipment on the border.The militants’ main supply line to Turkey was severed on Wednesday when regime troops broke an opposition siege of two Shia towns, Nubol and Zahraa, on the route to the border.Regime forces entered the two towns on Thursday to the cheers of residents, who chanted pro-government slogans and showered the fighters with rice.A high-ranking Syrian government official described the Aleppo advances as important, but said the regime had even more ambitious goals.”The next objectives are to close the borders with Turkey to prevent the arrival of troops and weapons, then taking Aleppo province, then Idlib province, and finally Idlib city,” he told AFP.Aleppo city, Syria’s former economic powerhouse, has been divided between opposition control in the east and regime control in the west since mid-2012.Saudi’s air force has targeted ISIL with air strikes since the campaign began in Syria in September 2014, but the Gulf kingdom is now ready to provide ground forces to defeat the armed group, a military spokesman said on Thursday.”Today, the Saudi kingdom announced its readiness to participate with ground troops with the US-led coalition against ISIL, because we now have the experience in Yemen,” Brigadier General Ahmed Asseri told Al Jazeera.”We know that air strikes cannot be enough and that a ground operation is needed. We need to combine both to achieve better results on the ground.”Asseri didn’t elaborate on how many soldiers the kingdom could send. The Saudi offer is expected to be discussed when the United States convenes a meeting of defence ministers from coalition countries fighting ISIL in Brussels next week.Lawrence Korb, a former US assistant secretary of defence, said while Middle East countries have armed and supplied rebels during the five-year Syrian civil war, putting boots on the ground would mark a major shift.c
