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Kurds and Assyrians Strive to Regain ISIS-held Areas in Northern Syria
By Haitham Haji
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A Kurdish fighter from the YPG heading to his post at the battlefront of Sere Kaniye, northeastern Syria (ARA News).
Sere Kaniye, Syria -- Kurdish military sources reported Wednesday that fighters of the People's Protection Units (YPG) launched an attack on locations of the Islamic State (IS/ISIS) near the village of Manajir in the countryside of Sere Kaniye (Ras al-Ain) in Hasakah province, northeastern Syria. A YPG source told ARA News that the Kurdish fighters headed towards the al-Maqlaa area southwest of the village of Manajir and shelled IS strongholds in the village. The same source added that the U.S.-led international coalition's warplanes also launched several raids on IS targets near the village. ARA News could not verify the number of casualties in the ranks of the radical group after the coalition's airstrikes. In a related development, civil rights activist Barzan al-Khalil from Hasakah stated to ARA News that the clashes renewed on Wednesday between the joint forces (Kurdish YPG, Syriac Haras al-Khabur and Assyrian Military Council) and the IS radical group in the countryside of the town of Tel Temir. "A fighter from Haras al-Khabur was killed and another injured in the clashes," he added. The IS hardline group had warned the people of Tel Temir to evacuate their houses, threatening that otherwise they would burn the town along with its residents, a local source told ARA News. Two months ago, IS gunmen seized control of a number of Assyrian villages, including Tel Shamiram, Tel Talaa, Tel Tal, Tel Tawil, Tel Hormuz and Qabr Shamiya, breaking into houses and taking dozens of civilians as hostages. Subsequent to the IS attacks, dozens of Assyrian families were displaced from the town of Tel Temir to the city of Hasakah, especially after violence mounted in the area amid clashes between the joint forces and the radical group in the vicinity of the town. In spite of the continuous airstrikes by the U.S.-led coalition and the advance of the Kurdish forces backed by the Assyrian fighters in the towns of Sere Kaniye and Tel Temir, the IS hardline group is still in control of large areas in the Hasakah countryside, especially in the Assyrian villages and the western countryside of Sere Kaniye.



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