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ISIS launches counteroffensive in Aleppo
[ARA] ALEPPO – Militant fighters of the Islamic State (ISIS) attacked on Friday positions of the western-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in the northern countryside of Aleppo. ISIS militants bombed the SDF headquarters in several towns, including Yusuf Pasha, Qashlah, Sadaniya, Haj Husen, Hamad and Agha. The group has used heavy weapons and mortar fire in the attacks, that caused mass destruction in the SDF-held towns. “Subsequent to the attack, fierce clashes broke out between our (SDF) forces and Daesh terrorists in northern Aleppo,” SDF member Habun Osman told ARA News, using another acronym for ISIS. “The terror group brought large military reinforcements from Manbij city on the border with Turkey after we cut off their main supply line between Raqqa and Aleppo,” he said. The spokesman added that the U.S.-led coalition’s warplanes backed the SDF by bombing ISIS positions in northern Aleppo. “More than twenty Daesh terrorists were killed, before the rest were forced to withdraw towards their major bastion of Manbij.” The SDF units, which include Kurdish, Arab and Christian fighters, have earlier recaptured the Tishreen Dam on the Euphrates River, cutting off the main ISIS supply line between Raqqa and Aleppo. The extremist group is striving to regain the dam, because of its strategic location that links its territories on the border with Turkey to its de facto capital of Raqqa. Posted by: badanov 2016-01-09 |
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