ISIS is preparing for a major offensive against Syrian Democratic Forces, a U.S-backed alliance of Kurds and Arabs, in al-Shadadi town south of Hasakah province, Syria's Local Coordination Committees revealed.LCC said it was informed that a meeting took place in Raqqa, the de facto Islamic State's capital, on Feb. 6 that included Abu Dujana al-Iraqi, the top aide of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and senior ISIS leaders The secret meeting had discussed the the supply routes and reinforcement that should be delivered from Mosul to Raqqa and the planned swap deals with Kurdish militias.
The kidnapped Yazidis girls and families were also on the ISIS schedule, according to LCC.
Al-Shadadi town has endured to brutal air strikes by the international alliance and Russia that killed hundreds of civilians who live under ISIS' yoke.
On Monday, Islamic State took four villages from SDF in the western countryside of Hasakah province, sources told Zaman al-Wasl. ISIS fighters who engaged in fierce fighting with Syrian Democratic Forces in Jabal Abdul Aziz region have captured villages of Safian, Abu Fakhaith, Meshrafa and al-Badie south of Ras al-Ayn town.
The SDF was formed in mid-October as an alliance between the powerful Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) and rebel groups including Arab and Assyrian militias to fight Islamic State. But few weeks later SDF had turned the fighting to moderate rebels groups amid reports of unspoken coordination with Syrian regime forces and Russia.