Over 500 dead as ISIS seizes Syrian air base
BLOODSHED 346 militants, 170 soldiers died since Tuesday in fight over Tabqa base
BEIRUT: ISIS militants stormed an air base in northeast Syria on Sunday, capturing it from government forces after days of fighting that cost more than 500 lives, a monitoring group said.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least 346 fighters from the Islamic Statae of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS)were killed and more than 170 members of government forces had died since Tuesday in the fight over Tabqa base, making it one of the deadliest confrontations between the two groups since the start of Syria’s war. The Observatory, which monitors violence in Syria through sources on the ground, said fighting raged inside the air base on Sunday. It was the Syrian army’s last foothold in an area otherwise controlled by Islamic State, which has seized large areas of Syria and Iraq.
In nearby Raqqa city, an ISIS stronghold, there was celebratory gunfire and several mosques announced through their loudspeakers that the base had fallen to the Islamists and cheered “God is greatest”, a witness said.
SYRIA WARNS US Meanwhile, Syria’s foreign minister warned the US Monday not to conduct airstrikes against the group inside Syria without Damascus’ consent, saying any such attack would be considered an aggression.
Walid al- Moallem’s words appeared timed to try to preempt any US military action in Syria. President Barack Obama has resisted ordering US military action in Syria for three years, even after a deadly chemical weapons attack a year ago near Damascus he blamed on President Bashar Assad’s government. But now, Obama faces pressure from his own military leaders to go after the Islamic State group inside Syria.
Obama remains wary, however, of getting dragged into the bloody and complex Syrian civil war.
Al-Moallem’s remarks also marked the first public comments by a senior Assad official on the threat posed by the ISIS, which has captured large swaths of Iraqi and Syrian territory. “Syria is ready to cooperate and coordinate on the regional and international level in the war on terror,” al-Moallem said. “But any effort to combat terrorism should be coordinated with the Syrian government.”