ISIS gunmen kill 40 US-backed fighters in eastern Syria
None
BEIRUT - Member of the Islamic State group killed at least 40 US-backed Syrian fighters, captured several alive and regained areas they lost earlier this month in eastern Syria near the border with Iraq in some of the most intense fighting in weeks, a war monitor and an agency linked to ISIS said Saturday.
Members of the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces have been on the offensive since early September under the cover of airstrikes by the US-led coalition to capture the last pocket held by ISIS in Syria.
Friday's fighting that lasted until the early hours of Saturday began when ISIS, taking advantage of a sandstorm, launched a counteroffensive against SDF positions east of the Euphrates river in the eastern province of Deir el-Zour that borders Iraq, activists said.
Rami Abdurrahman who heads the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that since Friday ISIS killed more than 60 SDF fighters, wounded others and captured at least 20. It added that some 100 SDF fighters have fled the battlefield against the extremists who carried out suicide car bomb attacks.
