BEIRUT: Fighters of the self-styled Islamic State 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 US-led air strikes in the conflict.

The Kurdish YPG militia said it was fighting to expel IS fighters who had attacked Ain Issa, captured from them only two weeks ago with aerial support from the US-led military alliance. Ain Issa sits on a major east-west highway from Aleppo in the west to the Iraqi city of Mosul.

Defence Secretary Ash Carter said a flurry of US air strikes around Raqqa over the weekend was aimed at disrupting the ability of IS fighters to parry advances by Kurdish forces.

Carter, speaking at a news conference with French Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, said air strikes targeting bridges and IS positions around its declared capital of Raqqa were aimed at limiting the group’s “freedom of movement and ability to counter those capable Kurdish forces.”

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which reports on the war, said IS forces had taken Ain Issa and areas around it some 50km 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.

The monitor said at least 37 IS fighters were killed and scores wounded in air strikes by the coalition and in clashes with Kurdish militia in the last twenty four hours in northeastern Syria.

Published in Dawn, July 7th, 2015

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