A Kurdish-led alliance backed by U.S.-led strikes seized a stronghold of ISIS in northeastern Syria on Friday, activists said.
The Syrian Democratic Forces were now in full control of Al-Shadadi in Hassakeh province, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor said.
The Observatory said ISIS forces had withdrawn south of the town, and SDF fighters were engaged in "mopping up" operations outside Al-Shadadi.
Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman said the town's capture was due in large part to heavy U.S.-led airstrikes.
The SDF began a new operation in Hassakeh province on Tuesday, and had been advancing toward Al-Shadadi in recent days.
Earlier, it seized a nearby oilfield from ISIS and cut two routes leading from Al-Shadadi to Mosul in neighbouring Iraq and Raqqa, the jihadi group's de facto Syrian capital.
The SDF is an alliance of Kurdish fighters from the People's Protection Units (YPG) and Arab forces, although the Kurds dominate the coalition.
It has successfully battled ISIS elsewhere in Hassakeh, with support from the U.S.-led coalition that began strikes in Syria in September 2014.
It is also waging a major operation in Aleppo province where it has seized key territory from Syrian rebels.
Those advances have angered Turkey, which accuses the YPG of being the Syrian affiliate of the Kurdistan Workers' Party, an outlawed group that has waged a decades-long insurgency against Ankara.
The Syrian Democratic Forces were now in full control of Al-Shadadi in Hassakeh province, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor said.
The Observatory said ISIS forces had withdrawn south of the town, and SDF fighters were engaged in "mopping up" operations outside Al-Shadadi.
Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman said the town's capture was due in large part to heavy U.S.-led airstrikes.
The SDF began a new operation in Hassakeh province on Tuesday, and had been advancing toward Al-Shadadi in recent days.
Earlier, it seized a nearby oilfield from ISIS and cut two routes leading from Al-Shadadi to Mosul in neighbouring Iraq and Raqqa, the jihadi group's de facto Syrian capital.
The SDF is an alliance of Kurdish fighters from the People's Protection Units (YPG) and Arab forces, although the Kurds dominate the coalition.
It has successfully battled ISIS elsewhere in Hassakeh, with support from the U.S.-led coalition that began strikes in Syria in September 2014.
It is also waging a major operation in Aleppo province where it has seized key territory from Syrian rebels.
Those advances have angered Turkey, which accuses the YPG of being the Syrian affiliate of the Kurdistan Workers' Party, an outlawed group that has waged a decades-long insurgency against Ankara.
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