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Syria's Kurdish militants kill 175 IS militants in week-long battles

Xinhua, February 27, 2015 Adjust font size:

The Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) have succeeded to capture a contested Syrian town in the al-Hasaka province, after a week-long battle with the Islamic State (IS) militants, a monitoring group reported on Friday.

The YPG entered the town of Tal Hamis after killing 175 IS fighters during the six-day-long battles, which have also resulted in the YPG capture of around 103 villages from the IS in northeastern Syria all the way toward the Iraqi borders, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The week-long battles fought by the YPG and affiliated groups were focused in the countryside of Tal Hamis and Jaza'a, where the Kurdish militants, backed by the air campaign of the U.S.-led anti-terror coalition, succeeded to defeat the IS in many positions in that predominantly-Kurdish part of the war-torn country, according to the Britain-based Observatory.

The Kurds, who pose some 15 percent of Syria's 23 million inhabitants with most living in the north of the embattled country, tried during the conflict to keep their areas immune to military operations and retain the kind of "autonomy."

In mid 2012, Syrian troops withdrew from the majority of the Kurdish areas, and Kurdish militia became responsible for security there.

However, the IS militants unleashed a wide-scale offensive against a main Kurdish city in northern Syria in late 2014, plunging the predominantly Kurdish areas in the north in deadly battles.

Still, the Kurdish militants backed by their fellow Iraqi Kurds and covered by the U.S.-led strikes succeeded to push the IS out of the city of Ayn al-Arab, or Kobane, prompting the terrorist group to unleash attacks in the countryside of Hasaka, also dominated by Syrian Kurds.

The IS attacks targeted the minority Christian Assyrians in that area, kidnapping hundreds of them, and setting some of their churches to fire.

Earlier on Friday, local press said the Syrian air force targeted the IS positions in the countryside of Tal Tamr which is considered the capital of the Syrian Assyrians in the countryside of Hasaka. Endit