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Kurds begin attack on northern Raqqa
ARA NewsKOBANE – At least 12 militants of the Islamic State (ISIS) radical group were killed and a dozen more wounded in an artillery attack by the Kurdish forces of the People’s Protection Units (YPG) in Syria’s northeastern province of Raqqa, military officials said on Thursday. The YPG forces targeted ISIS headquarters near Ain Issa town in northern Raqqa with dozens of shells. The YPG’s media center said in a statement on Thursday that their forces launched the anti-ISIS offensive in an attempt to paralyze the group’s movements in the northern countryside of Raqqa province, in a bid to open a path towards Raqqa city, which is deemed the ISIS de facto capital in Syria. “Our units impeded the terror group’s progress north Raqqa, killing 12 terrorists and wounding a dozen more, beside taking one of them as a hostage,” the YPG leadership said, pointing out that their units have destroyed two armored vehicles during the military operation on Thursday. The YPG fighters also seized “13 Kalashnikov rifles, 1.000 bullets, a PKC weapon, 30 hand grenades, 12 homemade mines, wireless device, night telescope and ten military backpacks,” according to he statement. Earlier on Wednesday, ISIS militant fighters targeted YPG security checkpoints in the vicinity of Qara Qozak village south of Kobane with heavy weapons and mortars. Speaking to ARA News on the phone, the YPG fighter Noureddin Gaban said that the villages adjacent to the Euphrates River, stretching from Zor Maghar near the Turkish border to Sirrin town south of Kobane, have been under ISIS fire for days. “However, our (YPG) response was a heavy and deadly one. Several security buildings for the terror group were completely destroyed in northern Raqqa under our shells, which could prevent the group from supplying its operation near Kobane in the coming days,” he said. Reporting by: Hozan Mamo Source: ARA News Posted by: badanov 2015-12-04 |
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