Daesh under fire as Kurds advance

SYRIAN KURDISH FORCES KILL 175 MEMBERS AND COMMANDERS OF THE TERROR GROUP

Kurdish forces dealt a blow to Daesh by capturing an important town on yesterday in the latest stage of a powerful offensive in northeast Syria, a Kurdish militia spokesman said.

Daesh has been forced into retreat across parts of the strategic region, a land bridge between territory it controls in Syria and Iraq, even as its fighters have mounted new raids this week on Assyrian Christian villages, abducting more than 200 people.

The capture of Tel Hamis was announced by the Kurdish YPG militia and confirmed by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors the country’s civil war.

“The flag is flying over Tel Hamis. We are now combing the city for terrorists and mines,” militia spokesman Redur Xelil said.

“Daesh continue to have a considerable number of territories and forces. But we can say we have stopped its advance,” Xelil said. The British-based Observatory said Kurdish forces killed at least 175 members and commanders of the ultra-hardline terror group in an offensive which began last weekend.

“The bodies of these fighters are still with the Kurdish militants,” said the Observatory’s head Rami Abdul Rahman. He said the Kurds, with backing from US-led air strikes, have taken at least 103 villages in the area and are now in the village of Suleima on the border with Iraq.

The United States and its allies have carried out hundreds of air strikes in Iraq and Syria to “degrade and destroy” Daesh, which last year declared a “caliphate” on territory it has captured in both countries. The US-led coalition has launched 20 strikes against Daesh in Syria since Thursday, its Combined Joint Task Force said.

The Kurdish YPG militia has been one of Daesh’s toughest enemies in Syria. Last month it flushed the group out of Kobani, breaking the militants’ four-month siege of the town with the help of US and allied air support and Iraqi Kurdish reinforcements on the ground.

Since then, Kurdish forces backed by other Syrian armed groups have pursued Daesh fighters as far their provincial stronghold of Raqqa.