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New Syrian rebel alliance advances against IS in key town

Xinhua, November 14, 2015 Adjust font size:

The Syrian Democratic Force (SDF), a new rebel alliance, made sweeping progress against the Islamic State (IS) group in a key town in Syria's al-Hasakah province near the Iraqi borders on Friday, a monitor group reported.

Intense battles are raging between the SDF, which is backed by the U.S.-led anti-terror coalition, and the IS militants in the town of al-Hawl in the eastern countryside of northeastern province of al-Hasakah, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based watchdog group, with a wide connection on ground in Syria.

Meanwhile, Kurdish activists said the SDF forces have actually succeeded to totally dislodge the IS out of al-Hawl after intense battles that have raged over the past 24 hours.

Al-Hawl is deemed as the most important stronghold of the IS terror group in northeastern Syria.

During the Syrian conflict, the town was seized and held under occupation by the IS militants due to its strategic significance and its almost uniformly Arab population in al-Hasakah, which is demographically split between Arab and Kurds.

North of al-Hawl is a significant road junction connecting the provincial capital of al-Hasakah with the Iraqi border, as its southeastern branch reach towards the Sinjar Mountains in Iraq, where the Kurdish fighters on Friday also regained control of the strategic town of Sinjar.

The progress and possible liberation of al-Hawl marks the first concrete achievement of the SDF fighters since announcing their formation last October.

The SDF, an alliance of Kurdish, Syrian Arab, Assyrian Syriac Christian and Turkmen militias in cooperation with the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG), said their aim is to fight the IS in northern Syria.

Last week, The YPG spokesman Salah Jamil told Xinhua that the SDF managed to free 350 km in the southern countryside of al-Hasakah from the IS control.

He added that the SDF fully besieged al-Hawl.

The control of al-Hasakah is split between the YPG and the Syrian government forces.

The Kurds are in control of the majority of northern al-Hasakah and the borderline with Turkey, while the IS terror group control the city of Shadadi and its villages south of al-Hasakah and areas in the eastern and western countryside of that province. Endit