You’re not gonna hear this on Cable News or by your fave talkie – PB/TK
US-backed Syrian forces ‘fully capture’ Tabqa from ISIL – al jazeera l May 10 2017
A US-backed alliance of Syrian Kurdish and Arab fighters has fully captured the city of Tabqa and a strategic dam nearby from ISIL, according to the group and a monitor.
The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said on Wednesday it had taken full control of the contested city with the help of US-led coalition air raids after more than a month of heavy fighting.
“Our forces have seized control of both the dam and the city of Tabqa,” SDF spokeswoman Jihan Sheikh Ahmed told Al Jazeera.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based monitor that relies on a network of contacts on the ground to track developments in Syria’s war, also confirmed the SDF’s takeover of the area.
The city and the adjacent Tabqa dam are key objectives in the US-led coalition’s push to retake the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant’s (ISIL, also known as ISIS) self-proclaimed capital of Raqqa.
In March, fears about the major hydroelectric dam’s integrity after fighting had forced it out of service led to a brief pause in military operations amid warnings that a collapse would be “catastrophic”.
Continue to aljazeera.com article: http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/05/backed-syrian-forces-fully-capture-tabqa-isil-170510174620917.html
