ISIL LOSES HOLD OF KEY TOWN, DAM
BEIRUT The capture of a key Syrian town and a nearby dam from Islamic State group militants undermines the extremist group’s ability to defend its de facto capital, Raqqa, and disrupts its ability to plan attacks in Western countries, the U.S.-led international coalition said Thursday.
Tabqa and the nearby dam, Syria’s largest, were seized a day earlier by a coalition of Kurdish-led fighters in an offensive that lasted nearly seven weeks, with the backing of airstrikes from the international coalition. The fighters were clearing the town and the dam Thursday of landmines, the militants’ favourite weapon.
The fall of Tabqa also denies militants “a key co-ordination hub” that had been used by the group’s foreign fighters since 2013 to plan attacks against the West, the coalition said in a statement. Tabqa had served as a base for the planning such operations after the militants lost other territories in northern Syria.