US-backed Kurdish forces capture important airbase from Daesh
US-backed Syrian Kurdish forces captured a strategically important airbase from Daesh terrorists in north Syria on Sunday in the first major victory for the group since the US airlifted the forces behind enemy lines four days ago.
The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces announced they had captured the Tabqa airbase, 45 kilometres west of Raqqa, Daesh’s de facto capital in Syria. The US, which has provided substantial air and ground support to the SDF, ferried hundreds of SDF forces, as well as US military advisers and US artillery, behind Daesh lines last week.
The airlift was a major development to the SDF’s multi-front campaign to bear down on Raqqa, as US-backed Iraqi forces simultaneously press their assault to seize Mosul from the militants, in neighbouring Iraq. SDF forces are within 10 kilometres of Raqqa from the north.
Tabqa airbase was captured by Daesh terrorists from the Syrian government in August 2014. Shortly afterward, Daesh announced it had killed about 200 government soldiers at the base, in a mass killing recorded and distributed on video over social media.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group also reported the SDF advance.
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 air strikes had locked up the dam’s gates, causing the water level behind it to rise. The activist group Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently reported that Daesh had ordered Raqqa residents to evacuate, though without their furniture. Tabqa Dam is 40 kilometres upstream of Raqqa on the Euphrates River.
US-led coalition forces said the dam was structurally sound.
US-backed Syrian Kurdish forces were in control of a spillway north of the dam “which can be used to alleviate pressure on the dam if need be,” the coalition said in a letter to AP.
The coalition says the dam has not been structurally damaged, to its knowledge, and says it has not targeted the dam.
The Observatory said there were no evacuations happening from Raqqa, as did the activist-run Raqqa 24 media centre. point of contact with Russian forces,” Xelil said in a written statement.
Turkey has been pressing Washington to abandon its alliance with the YPG and instead back its rebel allies in a final assault to capture Raqqa city, Daesh’s remaining redoubt. The head of the YPG told Reuters last week the assault would begin in early April, and that the YPG would take part alongside Arab fighters.