SDF says it took Syria’s largest gas field from IS

U.S.-backed group races government in region

BEIRUT — U.S.-backed Syrian fighters captured Saturday the country’s largest gas field from the Islamic State group in an eastern province that borders Iraq as they race with government forces to capture the energy-rich region, a senior official with the group said.

Nasser Haj Mansour of the Syrian Democratic Forces said the Conoco gas field and plant came under full control of the group on Saturday morning after days of fighting with the extremists.

He added that SDF fighters also captured the nearby al-Izba gas field.

Another SDF spokesman, Brig. Gen. Talal Sillo, said the fighting in the area left 65 IS fighters dead while more than 100 gunmen surrendered. He added that IS had been controlling Conoco since 2014.

Sillo said that SDF fighters marched toward the field from the nearby village of Khsham under the cover of airstrikes by the U.S.-led coalition.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which tracks the war in Syria with activists on the ground, reported later that SDF fighters took full control of the field in the province of Deir el-Zour.

The organization said IS fighters are launching a counteroffensive to retake the field.

SDF fighters have been marching on the east bank of the Euphrates River in Deir el-Zour while Syrian troops are gaining in areas on the west bank of the river under the cover of Russian airstrikes. Earlier this week, Syrian troops crossed into parts of the east bank but have concentrated their operations mostly on the west.

Elsewhere, In the northwestern province of Idlib, Russian airstrikes killed at least 20 people on Saturday, a day after a Russian submarine in the Mediterranean fired cruise missiles at insurgents in the province.