US-backed coalition: Daesh driven from key position near Iraq

The US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces coalition of Syrian Arab and Kurdish fighters said Friday it had ejected the Islamic State jihadist group from a key position on the border with Iraq.

"The Syrian Democratic Forces took control on Thursday of the village of Al-Hol on the IS supply route for arms and equipment from Iraq," SDF spokesman Colonel Talal Ali Sello told AFP.

"The streets are filled with bodies of jihadists, and other jihadists are fleeing towards Ash-Shadadi" to the southwest, he said.

"We have cut the supply route" for IS, said Sello.

"This is the biggest strategic victory, and it was achieved in complete coordination with the (US-led) international coalition, which carried out intensive (air) strikes," he said.

The offensive south of the Kurdish city of Hasakeh was launched on October 30 with the joint Arab-Kurdish force taking control of several villages before the capture of Al-Hol, which had been under IS rule since last year.

"This position was vital for jihadists in Iraq to cross to Syria on their way to Raqa," the de facto IS capital, according to Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Source: AFP