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Syria US-backed fighters enter IS-held airport: spokesman

Fighters from the Syrian Democratic Forces, a US-backed Kurdish-Arab alliance today entered a military airport held by the Islamic State jihadist group in northern Syria, a spokesman said.

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Fighters from the Syrian Democratic Forces, a US-backed Kurdish-Arab alliance today entered a military airport held by the Islamic State jihadist group in northern Syria, a spokesman said.

The advance on Tabqa airbase comes as the alliance prepares an attack on IS's de facto Syrian capital Raqqa, seeking to effectively surround the city before launching its assault.

SDF forces are also battling for the nearby Tabqa dam, held by IS, which was forced out of service today after its power station was damaged, a technical source there told AFP.

SDF spokesman Talal Sello said clashes were ongoing at Tabqa airbase, which IS captured in 2014.

"The SDF has taken control of more than 50 percent of Tabqa military airport. Fighting is ongoing inside the airport and its surroundings and full control of the airport is expected within the next few hours," he said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor said IS forces had withdrawn from the airbase under heavy artillery fire and US-led coalition air strikes.

IS seized the base from government troops in August 2014 and carried out one of its worst massacres there, killing up to 200 government soldiers.

With support from the US-led coalition fighting IS in Syria and Iraq, SDF fighters have inched closer to Raqa, taking territory to the north and east.

At their closest point, they are just eight kilometres (five miles) from the city, to the northeast.

But they are mostly further away, between 18 and 29 kilometres from Raqa.

Earlier this week, US forces airlifted SDF fighters behind IS lines to allow them to launch the Tabqa assault, and on Friday the alliance reached one of the dam's entrances.

But the fight for the dam, the biggest in Syria, forced it out of service on today, risking dangerous rising water levels.

"Shelling on the area... that supplies that dam with electricity has put it out of service," the technical source said.

"The work needed to fix the problem is not possible because there is not sufficient staff available as a result of the intensive shelling in the area of the dam," he added.

"If the problem is not fixed, it will begin to pose a danger to the dam."

The SDF's Sello told

 

(This article has not been edited by DNA's editorial team and is auto-generated from an agency feed.)

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