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

Xinhua, February 28, 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 fighters, 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.

Most of the Kurds, who account for some 15 percent of Syria's 23 million inhabitants and live in the north of the country, have tried to keep their areas immune to military operations and retain some 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 fighters 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 fire to some of their churches.

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