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Syria-Lebanon-Iran
U.S. coalition jets bomb Islamic State-held town near Euphrates Dam
2017-02-06
[REUTERS] U.S-led coalition planes bombed an 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 Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems....
-controlled town near the Euphrates Dam in northern Syria a day after the launch of a new phase of a campaign to capture the turbans' defacto capital of Raqqa, activists and the hard boyz said on Sunday.

Activists confirmed reports released by the turbans' news agency Amaq which said four raids in the last twenty four hours hit the town of Tabqa west of Raqqa, located near Syria's largest dam, at the southern end of Lake Assad on the Euphrates.

A video released by Amaq showed extensive damage to a commercial center in the town but did mention any casualties.

Islamic State fighters are battling hard to keep the swathes of territory they have captured in Syria, mostly in the center and east, as they lose ground in Iraq.

On Friday, air strikes in Raqqa hit at least four bridges over the Euphrates River, part of a weeks-long campaign of air strikes in the province and near the dam, activists said.

The Euphrates Dam is one of the major sources of electicity in the country and crucial for irrigation of farms in the fertile region around Raqqa.

On the ground, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), an alliance of U.S.-backed militias, started a new phase of its campaign against Raqqa on Saturday, aiming to surround it and sever the road to turban strongholds in Deir al-Zor province.

The SDF, which includes the powerful Kurdish YPG militia, launched the campaign to capture Raqqa in November.

Posted by:Fred

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