Washington, Oct 12 (EFE).– The United States airdropped 50 tons of munitions to rebel groups in northern Syria, in an urgent attempt to replace its failed program for training opposition militias, CNN said Monday, citing unnamed U.S. officials.

The delivery was carried out with the parachuting of 112 loaded pallets, a U.S. official revealed on condition of anonymity.

A C-17 transport aircraft, escorted by jet fighters, dropped tons of munitions, grenades and other materiel at a spot in Al-Hasakah province to a rebel group supported by the United States known as the Syrian Arab Coalition.

American sources said that all the materiel successfully landed in the hands of allied rebels.

Last week the United States announced the end of a plan to train thousands of moderate rebel militia troops to fight on the ground against jihadists of the Islamic State, or IS, and to eventually serve as an alternative to Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad.

The decision to aid by other means Syrian rebels who are allies of the United States came soon after Russia began its bombing campaign to shore up the Assad regime in the civil war.

The conflict Syria has been going through since March 2010, when a series of protests against the Assad government broke out, has left some 220,000 people dead and more than 4 million refugees in neighboring countries, as well as some 7.6 million displaced persons inside of Syria, according to estimates of the United Nations. EFE