U.S.-backed militias oust Islamic State
from Syria's Tabqa old city
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[May 01, 2017]
BEIRUT (Reuters) - U.S.-backed
militias said on Monday they had pushed Islamic State fighters out of
the old quarters of Tabqa, a strategically vital town controlling
Syria's largest dam, hemming the militants into the remaining modern
district along the shore.
The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), an alliance made up of Syrian
Kurdish and Arab fighting groups, are fighting a multi-phased campaign
to drive Islamic State from its stronghold of Raqqa, 40km (25 miles)
downstream and east of Tabqa.
The SDF will wait to assault Raqqa until it seizes Tabqa, its military
officials have previously said, but it had made slow progress since
besieging the town in early April.
This changed on Thursday when the SDF began to advance north into the
old city.
On Monday the SDF said in an online statement it had taken the last
three neighborhoods of the old city and an adjoining industrial
district.
SDF forces were now fighting Islamic State in the three modern quarters
of the town which lie along the Tabqa reservoir, SDF spokesman Talal
Silo said.
Islamic State still control the dam.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor,
said on Monday the SDF now controls about 80 percent of Tabqa.
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Syrian Democratic Forces fighters gesture while posing on a damaged
airplane inside Tabqa military airport after taking control of it
from Islamic State fighters, west of Raqqa city, Syria , April 2017.
REUTERS/Rodi Said

In recent weeks the SDF has also squeezed Islamic State's pocket of
territory around Raqqa, which the jihadist group has used as a base
to plot attacks and manage much of its self-declared caliphate since
seizing the city in 2014.

(Reporting by Lisa Barrington; Editing by Toby Chopra)
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