New data from the Air Force showed a 50% increase in the number of in-air refueling sorties US planes have flown in the past year, over the first year of the war.

This has been common in US-backed air wars, as the US has much more in-air refueling capacity than other nations. The refueling allows Saudi warplanes to remain in the air over Yemen much longer without going back to refuel, letting them launch more strikes.

All of this just adds to American complicity in the massive number of civilians the Saudi airstrikes have killed, which was already a problem because the Saudis were flying American-made planes and dropping American-made bombs. That the US is also directly fueling the planes just further undercuts the claims the US is trying to broker peace in Yemen.

Since April 2015, the Air Force has logged 1,778 tanker sorties for the operation, Air Forces Central Command spokeswoman Capt. Kathleen Atanasoff told Military.com on Tuesday. That includes 1,069 over the past year, an increase of 360, or 50 percent, from the 709 in the previous period.

"These operations are ongoing, with aircraft refueling occurring daily," Atanasoff said in an email. The service's tankers such as KC-135 Stratotankers and KC-10 Extenders participated in 7,564 refueling "events" with coalition aircraft, with "about 54 million pounds of fuel off-loaded in support of Saudi operations in Yemen," Atanasoff said.

Refueling numbers are tracked by the command but, unlike statistics on strikes and sorties against the Islamic State and the Taliban, aren't publicly released via the command's airpower summary factsheets.

"The main obstacle to the complete elimination of Daesh in Syria is not the military capabilities of terrorists, but rather the support of [our] American colleagues," Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said Wednesday.

He went on to say that a series of Daesh attacks against the Syrian forces have been carried out from the areas where the "US military mission" is deployed.

"We have information that the armed formations which have joined the arrangement on the Idlib de-escalation zone have started to fight more actively against Jabhat al-Nusra. We will be assisting them in this matter, as well as, of course, assisting the Syrian army," Lavrov told reporters after a meeting of Russian special services chiefs in Krasnodar which was televised by RT.

Mattis told a House Armed Services Committee hearing on October 3 that "we need to try one more time to make this strategy work with them, by, with, and through the Pakistanis, and if our best efforts fail, President [Donald] Trump is prepared to take whatever steps are necessary."

The defense chief also said he would travel to Islamabad soon, but he did not provide details.

Mattis was testifying alongside Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman General Joseph Dunford in their second hearing of the day on U.S. policy in Afghanistan.
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New agencies have reported that measures being discussed include potentially downgrading Pakistan's status as a major non-NATO ally.

Asked during the hearing whether that option was being discussed, Mattis replied, "I am sure it will be."

Pakistan has regularly denied it provides safe havens to extremist groups.

The Pakistani Embassy in Washington said late on October 3 that Islamabad had achieved success in counterterrorism operations inside Pakistan.

"However, unless the same level of success is achieved in [Afghanistan], long lasting-peace in the region will remain out of reach," the embassy said in a statement.