IS counterattacks kill 47 US-backed fighters

BEIRUT: Counter-attacks by the Islamic State group have killed at least 47 US-backed fighters over two days as the jihadists struck from their embattled holdout in eastern Syria, a war monitor said Saturday.

The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) Kurdish-led alliance supported by a US-led coalition is battling to expel the jihadists from a pocket in the eastern province of Deir Ezzor on the Iraqi border.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor said the jihadists launched ‘three separate assaults’ on Saturday.

The monitor said the counterattacks targeted the villages of Al-Bahra and Gharanij and an area close to the Al-Tanak oilfield, which is commercially active but is also an SDF military position.

SDF spokesman Mustefa Bali confirmed ‘a series of attacks’ led by IS in these three locations and said fighting had taken place all day, with the Kurdish-led ground forces receiving coalition air support.

The fighting on Saturday alone killed 29 SDF fighters, taking its total losses over the last two days to at least 47, said Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman, revising up an earlier death toll of 24.

Thirty-nine IS jihadists have been killed — some in the ground clashes, others in air strikes — over the same period, the Observatory said.

IS confirmed in a statement on Telegram that it had launched attacks near Al-Bahra and Gharanij.

Earlier, the Observatory said IS had broken out of its holdout on Friday to attack Al-Bahra, where SDF fighters and coalition advisers are based.

“IS launched a broad attack on the village of Al-Bahra next to its holdout, taking advantage of the fog,” Abdel Rahman said.

The monitor said coalition raids have also killed 17 civilians, including five children, in the ISheld pocket since Friday.

Coalition spokesman Sean Ryan said he had not received any reports of civilian casualties, and insisted air strikes had been “very limited due to the weather”.