Clashes underway between Kurds, ISIL in NE Syria
Kurdish fighters have been engaged in heavy fighting with the ISIL Takfiri militants over the control of several villages in northeastern Syria.
According to the so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and other sources, the clashes on Monday were centered in the province of Hasakah where the ISIL terror group took control of at least one village near the town of Tal Tamr.
Syria state media, meanwhile, reported that the terrorists attacked seven villages in the region, forcing hundreds of people to escape.
The Monday skirmishes came a day after fighters from the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) managed to take over some 20 villages southeast of the Qamishli district in Hasakah.
The operation, which began late on February 21, was aimed at retaking the militant-held town of Tal Hamis near the Turkish border and its surrounding areas.
Bomb blast near Damascus
In a separate development in Syria, at least six people were killed in a bomb blast at a checkpoint near a Damascus suburb.
Kurdish forces have fiercely clashed with ISIL militants in Syria and neighboring Iraq in recent months.
in January, the fighters succeeded in seizing the strategic town of Kobani on the border with Turkey and battles have since continued for the recapture of nearby villages.
The loss of the border town is viewed as a major blow to ISIL terrorists, who started advancing on Kobani on September 16, 2014, in order to strengthen control over a long stretch of the Syrian-Turkish border.
Syria has been grappling with a deadly crisis since March 2011. The violence fueled by Takfiri groups has so far claimed the lives of over 210,000 people.
The ISIL militants, with members from several Western countries, control parts of Syria and Iraq, and have been carrying out horrific acts of violence such as public decapitations and crucifixions against all communities.
MR/NT/AS
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