“The battle began after midnight,” Talal Salu told Reuters via an internet messaging service. Another spokesman later said alliance forces had already attacked Islamic State fighters. He urged residents to stay away from Isis-controlled areas of Hasaka. The campaign would “continue until all occupied areas in Hasaka are freed from Daesh,” a spokesman for the alliance’s general command said in the video, using an Arabic name for Isis. A video posted earlier on YouTube announced the offensive in southern Hasaka, and showed several dozen men in fatigues standing outdoors with yellow flags and banners carrying the name of the Democratic Forces of Syria in Arabic and Kurdish.
A group monitoring the war reported fighting and coalition air strikes in the area. It was the first declared operation by the Democratic Forces of Syria, which joins a US-backed Kurdish militia and several Syrian Arab rebel groups, since it announced its formation earlier this month.įighting in Hasaka had begun after midnight, a spokesman for the alliance said. In Syria, a newly formed US-backed rebel alliance launched an offensive against Isis in the north-eastern province of Hasaka. Russia began airstrikes a month ago, changing the balance of forces in the war in favour of President Bashar al-Assad and against rebel groups that include both jihadists and non-militants backed by the West, Turkey and Gulf countries.
Deputy secretary of state Antony Blinken, meanwhile, told a policy conference in Bahrain Moscow’s intervention in the Syrian conflict would have the unintended consequences of drawing Russia into a quagmire and alienating Sunni Muslims across the region.
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