The Islamic State group launched a deadly counter-offensive on Wednesday to repel US-backed Kurdish-forces advancing on a final jihadist-held pocket of eastern Syria, a monitor said.
The IS fighters managed to take hostage several dozen fighters from the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
The SDF, a Kurdish and Arab alliance, has been waging a month-long assault backed by US-led coalition air strikes to oust IS from a small area in Syria’s eastern Deir Ezzor province, including the town of Hajin.
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| Kurdish YPG fighters in Syrian Kurdistan |
On Wednesday, IS launched “a counter-attack against SDF positions around Hajin and nearby towns,” the Observatory said.
“Violent clashes subsequently erupted and are still ongoing,” said Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman.
He said IS had killed at least 10 SDF fighters and taken another 35 hostage.
The SDF denied any of its fighters had been captured during the attack.
“No fighter from the SDF was captured by Daesh on the Deir Ezzor front. This information is not true,” SDF media official Mustefa Bali told AFP, using the Arabic acronym for IS.
IS published a statement on its social media accounts on Wednesday describing an attack by “soldiers of the caliphate” against SDF forces.
The Observatory said IS jihadists had taken advantage of a sandstorm raging in the remote Deir Ezzor province to attack SDF fighters, who could not be protected by coalition warplanes due to poor visibility.
In one month of fighting for Hajin, at least 139 SDF fighters and 267 IS jihadists have been killed, the monitor said.
The SDF, backed by the coalition, has ousted IS from swathes of northern and eastern Syria, including Raqa, the de facto capital of the jihadists’ so-called caliphate.
Founded in 2015, the SDF is spearheaded by the People’s Protection Units (YPG), a powerful Kurdish armed movement.
Hundreds of foreigners have joined the YPG to fight IS.
On Wednesday, the force announced that a French national fighting among its ranks had been killed near Hajin.
Farid Medjahed, born in the French city of Marseilles, died on October 6 fighting IS there, the YPG said.
It did not say when he arrived in Syria but said it had only been a “short stay”.
In February, the YPG announced that three European nationals had been killed in clashes in Syria.
U.S. regards the Kurdish Democratic Union Party PYD and its powerful military wing YPG/YPJ, as key ally against Islamic State IS and the most effective fighting force against IS in Syria and has provided them with arms, air support as well as the military advisers.
The YPG has seized swathes of Syria from Islamic State.
In 2013, the PYD — the political branch of the powerful People’s Protection Units (YPG) — has established three autonomous Cantons of Jazeera, Kobani and Afrin and a Kurdish government across Syrian Kurdistan in 2013.
On March 17, 2016, Kurdish authorities announced the creation of a “federal region” made up of those semi-autonomous regions in Syrian Kurdistan.
Syrian Kurds on December 30, 2016 have approved a blueprint for a system of federal government in Syrian Kurdistan, reaffirming their plans for autonomy in areas they have controlled during the civil war.
Turkey with pro-Ankara Syrian mercenary fighters from the Free Syrian Army FSA on January 20, 2018 launched an operation against the YPG in its western enclave of Afrin in Syria and on March 18, Turkish troops supporting Syrian rebels drove the YPG out of Afrin city.
Ankara fears the creation of a Kurdish autonomous region or Kurdish state in Syrian Kurdistan could encourage separatism amongst its own Kurds.
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