US-backed forces battle for DAESH-held air base in Syria
Coalition urged to stop targeting residential areas
BEIRUT, March 26, (Agencies): US-backed Syrian Kurdish forces began their assault on an Islamic Stateheld air base in northern Syria on Sunday, activists said, as reports circulated that residents were evacuating the nearby city of Raqqa, the militants’ de facto capital.
The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces have ratcheted up the pressure on IS in Syria since the US airlifted hundreds of SDF fighters, US military advisers, and US artillery behind IS lines on March 21.
SDF fighters reached the limits of the Tabqa air base Sunday and began firing on militants inside, the Britainbased Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group reported, while the activist-run Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently said the SDF now “controlled” several parts of the air base.
The two groups rely on local contacts to smuggle information out of ISheld territory.
The media arm for the Kurdish PYD political party, which is aligned with the SDF, says fighters have seized a village one kilometer (0.6 miles) away from the air base.
The air base lies 45 kms (28 miles) west of Raqqa. Other SDF forces are within 10 kms (6 miles) of the city, approaching from the north.
Meanwhile there were conflicting reports over whether civilians had begun evacuating Raqqa due to concerns over the stability of the nearby Tabqa Dam.
The militants said US-led coalition airstrikes had locked up the dam’s gates, causing the water level behind it to rise. Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently reported that IS had ordered Raqqa residents to evacuate, though without their furniture. Tabqa Dam is 40 kms (25 miles) upstream of Raqqa on the Euphrates River.
The coalition could not immediately be reached for comment.
But the Observatory said there were no evacuations happening, as did the activist-run Raqqa 24 media center.
Raqqa 24 said engineers employed by the militants had restored power to the dam’s gates and said the structure was functioning normally.
The reports from Raqqa came as a leading Syrian opposition group called on the US-led coalition to stop targeting residential areas in and around the city.
The Syrian National Coalition said in a statement that it was “increasingly concerned” about civilian casualties in the campaign against the extremist group. The exiled opposition coalition is taking part in UN-mediated talks in Geneva.
The SNC said it believed coalition forces were behind an airstrike that killed at least 30 civilians sheltering
in a school in the countryside outside Raqqa on March 21. The coalition has said it is investigating.
The US has provided substantial air and ground support to the Kurdishled Syrian Democratic Forces, who are closing in on Raqqa as well as the Tabqa Dam.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said coalition airstrikes have killed 89 civilians in Raqqa province in the past week, including 35 in a school in the village of Mansoura.
A Kurdish and Arab Syrian militia backed by the United States has captured the town of Karama as it prepares for an assault on the Islamic State stronghold of Raqqa that it expects to take place in early April, it said on Sunday.
The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) has trapped Raqqa in a shrinking
pocket of territory on the northern bank of the Euphrates and has advanced towards it in a multi-pronged offensive over several months.
Dejwar Khabat, a field commander with the SDF, said he expects the assault on Raqqa to begin in early April, affirming a timeline reported by Reuters earlier this month, after the USbacked militia closes the gap on the city on more fronts.
He was answering Reuters questions in a press conference with local reporters in Karama, the last significant town to the east of Raqqa, which lies about 18km (11 miles) away along the Euphrates. Another thrust of the SDF advance has already reached a few kilometres from Raqqa in the northeast.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor, said the SDF had almost completely captured Karama but that clashes between it and Islamic State were still going on.
To the west of Raqqa, the SDF is aiming to capture the town of Tabqa on the south bank of the Euphrates, along with a nearby dam and airbase after US helicopters helped the militia’s fighters establish a bridgehead across the river last week.
Khabat said the SDF has besieged the airbase, but the Observatory said it was still several kilometres away. It was captured by Islamic State at the height of the group’s expansion in August 2014 and the jihadists then killed at least 160 captive soldiers, the Observatory has said.
Islamic State has retreated with increasing pace over recent months in the face of three rival military campaigns against it in Syria. The SDF, backed by a US-led coalition, has pushed Islamic State from the north and northeast.
in Iran could be seized.
“The sanctioned companies have, directly and/or indirectly, been involved in the brutal atrocities committed by the Zionist regime in the occupied Palestinian territories, or they have supported the regime’s terrorist activities and Israel’s development of Zionist settlements on the Palestinian soil,” the IRNA report said.
The IRNA report referred to the sanctions as a “reciprocal act,” without elaborating. Iran’s new sanctions comes after the Trump administration in February sanctioned more than two dozen people and companies in retaliation for a recent ballistic missile test.
The companies named did not immediately respond to requests for comment Sunday. They included ITT Corp., missile-maker Raytheon Co. and United Technologies Corp Denver’s Re/Max Holdings Inc., a real estate company, also made the list.
Another firm on the list, truck maker Oshkosh, has worked closely with Israeli armored products maker Plasan, including on the Sand Cat armored vehicle that is used by several countries, including Israel. The Israeli Defense Ministry is reportedly seeking to buy some 200 tactical trucks from the Oshkosh, Wisconsin-based company.
Kahr Arms and Magnum Research, two sanctioned firms which share the same parent company, advertise .44-caliber Magnum and .50-caliber “Desert Eagle” pistols — a product line that previously has been made in Israel.
Meanwhile, a senior Iranian lawmaker said Iran would consider a bill branding the US military and the CIA as terrorist groups if the US Congress passes a bill designating Iran’s Revolutionary Guard a terrorist organization.
Allaeddin Boroujerdi, the head of parliament’s national security and foreign policy committee, was quoted by Iranian state television as saying the move to further sanction the Revolutionary Guard goes against the 2015 nuclear deal Iran reached with the United States and other world powers.
The nuclear deal saw Iran agree to limit its enrichment of uranium in exchange for the lifting of some economic sanctions. In the time since, Chicago-based Boeing Co. has struck a $16.6 billion deal with Iran for passenger planes.