Iraq News

SDF takes ISIS-held village outside al-Raqa

Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) fighters said they have seized a village where the "Islamic State of Iraq and Syria" (ISIS) had a training camp and base near al-Raqa in northern Syria, AFP reported Tuesday (July 11th).

The advance comes as the Arab-Kurdish alliance battles to oust ISIS from al-Raqa, one of their last remaining bastions in Syria.

"The SDF has captured the village of Al-Akeryshi east of the city [of al-Raqa] and ISIS car bomb attacks attempting to take it back have failed," the alliance said late Monday.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the village had been used by ISIS as both a military base and a training camp named after slain al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

But the group also carried out a massacre of up to 200 of its own members in the village in 2015, according to the monitor, executing fighters who were accused of seeking to leave its ranks.

The SDF has captured around 30% of al-Raqa city since it entered the ISIS bastion in June after a months-long operation to capture territory in the surrounding province.

The international coalition fighting ISIS in Syria and Iraq has provided the SDF with key support ranging from airstrikes to weaponry and advisors on the ground.

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