BEIRUT: Counter-attacks by the Islamic
State group have killed at least 47 US-backed fighters over two days as
the militants struck from their embattled holdout in eastern Syria, a
war monitor said on Saturday (Nov 25) .
The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) Kurdish-led alliance supported by a
US-led coalition is battling to expel the militants from a pocket in the
eastern province of Deir Ezzor on the Iraqi border.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor said the jihadists launched "three separate assaults" on Saturday.
The monitor said the counter-attacks targeted the villages of Al-Bahra
and Gharanij and an area close to the Al-Tanak oilfield, which is
commercially active but is also an SDF military position.
SDF spokesman Mustefa Bali confirmed "a series of attacks" led by IS in
these three locations and said fighting had taken place all day, with
the Kurdish-led ground forces receiving coalition air support.
The fighting on Saturday alone killed 29 SDF fighters, taking its total
losses over the last two days to at least 47, said Observatory head Rami
Abdel Rahman.
Thirty-nine IS militants have been killed - some in the ground clashes,
others in air strikes - over the same period, the Observatory said.
'A BROAD ATTACK'
IS confirmed in a statement on Telegram that it had launched attacks near Al-Bahra and Gharanij.
Earlier, the Observatory said IS had broken out of its holdout on Friday
to attack Al-Bahra, where SDF fighters and coalition advisers are
based.
"IS launched a broad attack on the village of Al-Bahra next to its holdout, taking advantage of the fog," Abdel Rahman said.
The monitor said coalition raids have also killed 17 civilians, including five children, in the IS-held pocket since Friday.
Coalition spokesman Sean Ryan said he had not received any reports of
civilian casualties, and insisted air strikes had been "very limited due
to the weather".
Deir Ezzor activist Omar Abu Leila said the attack on Al-Bahra was "very
scary" and that IS fighters were able to move quickly "taking advantage
of the fog".
'PROBABLE CHLORINE ATTACK'
Meanwhile Syrian regime shelling killed nine civilians including seven
children Saturday in a planned buffer zone around the country's last
major rebel bastion, the Observatory said.
A teacher and four schoolchildren were among the victims after the
shelling hit near a school in the northwestern province of Idlib, said
Abdel Rahman.
Later in the evening, in neighbouring Aleppo which is under Syrian
regime control, official media accused the rebels of launching an attack
with "toxic gas".
Regional head of health services, Ziad Hajj Taha, said it was a "probable" chlorine attack.
It is not the first time such accusations have been levelled against the
rebels in Aleppo. On other occasions the Syrian regime has been accused
of using chemical weapons against rebel strongholds, which it has
always denied.
The anti-IS alliance has repeatedly denied previous reports of civilians
killed in its air strikes, and said it does its utmost to avoid hitting
non-combatants.
IS overran large swathes of Syria and neighbouring Iraq in 2014,
proclaiming a "caliphate" in land it controlled but has lost most of it
to offensives by multiple forces in both countries.
In Syria, the militants are largely confined to the pocket in Deir
Ezzor, but they also have a presence in the vast Badia desert that
stretches across the country to the Iraqi border.
Since 2014, the US-led coalition has acknowledged direct responsibility
for over 1,100 civilian deaths in Syria and Iraq, but rights groups put
the number much higher.
Syria's war has killed more than 360,000 people and displaced millions
since it started in 2011 with the brutal repression of anti-government
protests.
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