Amid fierce fighting, IS advances to Hasakeh

Islamic State group jihadists, emboldened by a string of battlefield victories, advance to the gates of the Syrian city of Hasakeh after intense fighting with regime troops.

Despite nine months of US-led airstrikes, the militants have made new territorial gains in recent weeks, seizing areas including the ancient Syrian city of Palmyra and the capital of Iraq’s vast Anbar province.

Now “IS is 500 meters (550 yards) away from the entrance of Hasakeh, after fierce clashes against regime forces south of the city,” says Rami Abdel Rahman, director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitoring group.

He says IS had seized all military posts in that area of northeastern Syria, including an unfinished prison building and a power plant, after at least six suicide bombers struck on Wednesday.

— AFP