(MENAFN- Arab Times) Islamic State fighters stormed a Syrian town held by Kurdish-led forces near Raqqa city on Monday, part of a wider offensive by the militants two days after their de facto capital was hit by some of the heaviest USled air strikes in the conflict.
The Kurdish YPG militia said it was fighting to expel Islamic State fighters who had attacked the town of Ain Issa, which was only captured from them two weeks ago with aerial support from the US-led military alliance.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which reports on the war, said Islamic State forces had taken the town and areas around it some 50 km (30 miles) north of Raqqa city. Air strikes at the weekend destroyed seven bridges over waterways in Raqqa, which is bordered to the south by the Euphrates river, it said. Monday's attack on Ain Issa was part of a coordinated Islamic State offensive on YPG positions that also targeted the northeastern province of Hasaka, bordering Turkey to the north and Iraq to the south, YPG spokesman Redur Xelil said.
The YPG has been the only notable partner to date on the ground in Syria for the US-led alliance battling to eliminate Islamic State in Syria and northern Iraq, where the group has declared a "caliphate" to rule over all Muslims. Ain Issa, one of the YPGheld areas targeted on Monday, sits on a major east-west highway that runs all the way from Aleppo in the west to the Iraqi city of Mosul.
YPG-led forces said they had captured Ain Issa on June 23 in part of an offensive that drove deep into Islamic State's stronghold of Raqqa province. They also said they had captured the northern town of Tel Abyad at the Turkish border.
The World Food Programme and local partners delivered 2,000 food rations to Arab, Kurdish and Turkmen families in Tel Abyad last Thursday, enough to last 10,000 people for a month, the UN agency said. Islamic State's retreat allowed access to the area for the first time in more than eight months, it said. In the last two days, Islamic State have attacked YPG-held positions near the northeastern city of Hasaka, which is divided between government and YPG control, and in the Jabal Abdul Aziz mountain range southwest of the city, Nasir Haj Mansour, a Kurdish official in Hasaka province, said. Hasaka is important in the battle against Islamic State for reasons including its location at the border with territory controlled by the group in Iraq.
The Observatory said Islamic State fighters had seized villages from YPG control in the Jabal Abdul Aziz area. It said the Islamic State offensive stretched all the way from Hasaka province in the north east to the town of Sarin in the north western Aleppo province. Elsewhere, Iraqi Shiite fighters and army troops made gains north of Falluja on Sunday but their efforts to seal off Islamic State militants in the city met heavy resistance, including suicide bomb attacks, army sources and militia fighters said. Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi's government is trying to reverse recent gains by Islamic State hardliners in the western province of Anbar after they seized the provincial capital Ramadi in May.
Falluja, just 40 km (25 miles) west of Baghdad, was a centre of Sunni Muslim armed opposition to the Shiite-led government even before Islamic State took control of most of Iraq's Sunni regions in June last year. Sunday's offensive was led by fighters from Kata'ib Hezbollah, part of the mainly Shiite Hashd Shaabi force fighting with the army against Islamic State. Spokesman Jaafar Hussaini said the group managed to cut off a supply line to Islamic State-held territory north of the city. Authorities say they already control the eastern, southern and western approaches. "Today's advance is a key achievement to isolate DAESH terrorists inside the city and cut all their supply lines," Hussaini said, referring to Islamic State. "Today's advance will determine how and when Falluja liberation operations start." Two army sources said Islamic State fighters deployed at least two suicide car bombs to break the advance, killing 21 members of the Hashd Shaabi and army force, but failed to stop them capturing a bridge at al-Sheeha, north of the city.
They said Islamic State forces pulled back to the nearby area of Albu Shijil, where they came under heavy bombardment from army artillery. Iraqi forces are being supported in Anbar by a US-led coalition which has been carrying out air strikes for nearly a year against Islamic State in its selfdeclared caliphate across parts of Iraq and Syria. In Iraq, the Islamist militants have been pushed out of the city of Tikrit and eastern province of Diyala, but are still fighting in the town of Baiji, home to Iraq's largest oil refinery. In Syria they have lost ground to Kurdish fighters, but captured the central town of Palmyra in May. In the Iraqi capital Baghdad at least 12 people were killed in four separate bombings.
Two bombs struck on Sunday morning, and the second pair exploded after dusk as people were breaking their daily Ramadan fasts. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attacks, but statements issued in the name of Islamic State on Sunday said it was behind two bombs which killed 10 people the day before. An Islamic State militant blew up an explosive-laden bulldozer near Haditha, killing seven Iraqi soldiers in one of a wave of bomb attacks on the northwestern town on Monday, a police source said. Haditha and its nearby dam lie in one of the few parts of the huge western province of Anbar still under the control of Iraq's Shiite-led government forces, which were driven out of the provincial capital Ramadi in May.
Security services said they fired on and destroyed four other vehicles believed to be rigged with explosives near the town, before they could reach their targets. The coordinated assault reflected an escalation of Islamic State operations in the final days of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. In a statement two weeks ago, Islamic State spokesman Abu Mohammad Adnani called for increased attacks during Ramadan, and specifically mentioned Haditha.
A car bomb also exploded on Monday in the town of Jubba, about 30 km (20 miles) southeast of Haditha, close to the Ain al-Asad air base where US forces have been training Sunni Muslim fighters from Anbar to take on Islamic State. A police source said seven soldiers were killed.
The Sunni Muslim province of Anbar is a stronghold of the Islamic State militants who control swathes of Iraq and Syria, including the northern Iraqi city of Mosul and the Syrian city of Raqqa, capital of their self-declared caliphate. In Iraq, the Islamist militants have been driven out of the city of Tikrit and eastern province of Diyala, but have launched repeated strikes to retake lost ground in the refinery town of Baiji, north of Tikrit.
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