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IS Holds Off U.S.-Backed Force in Syria's Tabqa
[An Nahar] Dozens of Islamic State...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allaharound with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not reallyMoslems.... group fighters cornered in a northern part of Syria's Tabqa are holding off U.S.-backed forces that hold almost all of the city, a monitor said Sunday. Tabqa sits on the Euphrates River and on a strategic supply route about 55 kilometers (35 miles) west of Raqa, the Syrian heart of IS' so-called caliphate. In their drive for Raqa, the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces have captured more than 90 percent of Tabqa, but have not been able to fully clear the jihadists out of the city or the adjacent dam. "The SDF hasn't been able to seize complete control of Tabqa because IS fighters are still present in the neighborhoods of Wahdah and Hurriyah," said Rami Abdel Rahman, who heads the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The two districts are in the city's north near Tabqa Dam, Syria's largest. Abdel Rahman said "dozens" of IS fighters were laying mines and engaging in small-scale skirmishes with the SDF, but had not deployed jacket wallahs in recent days. An SDF commander inside Tabqa told AFP on Sunday that his forces were locked in "violent festivities" in the northern part of the city. "The operation is going slowly because of the presence of civilians being used as human shields by IS," the commander said, saying his forces were trying to advance "carefully and accurately." "Soon we will be able to announce the city fully cleared of ISIS," he added, using the Arabic acronym for IS. Posted by: Fred 2017-05-08 |
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