Kurds push back IS in north Syria border provinces

Kurdish militia in Syria wrest control of a dozen villages from the extremist Islamic State group on either side of the jihadist’s bastion province of Raqqa, a monitor says.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says the Kurdish People’s Protection Units, backed by air strikes from a US-led anti-IS coalition, seize eight villages from jihadists on the western edges of Raqqa province.

“Kurdish units and their allies advanced and took control of at least eight villages southeast of Kobani, amid air strikes by the international coalition,” the Britain-based monitor says.

Kurdish militia and Syrian rebels pushed IS back from Kobani, which lies in northern Aleppo province on the Turkish-Syrian border, in January.

Since then, YPG units have edged east towards Raqqa, which IS declared the capital of its self-styled caliphate last year.

Syrian Kurdish fighters also seized control of four villages from IS near a border town in Hasakeh, east of Raqqa, the Observatory says.

“There are still clashes between the YPG and IS southwest of Ras al-Ain,” the monitor says, adding that at least eight IS fighters and three Kurdish militia were killed in the fighting.

On Saturday, IS launched an assault on Hasakeh’s provincial capital, advancing to within four kilometers (less than three miles) of the key city.

— AFP