(Zaman Al Wasl)- US-backed forces seek to take key Daesh town in eastern Deir Ezzor province, urging the jihadists to lay down their arms and leave the area, local activists said Tuesday.
Talks are still underway between the YPG-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and Daesh to evacuate the town of al-Hajeen at the eastern Bank of Euphrates River.
Activist Taj al-Allow said the negotiations followed heavy artillery fire by the US-led International coalition on the town.
Daesh militants are supposed to head the Syrian Desert, also known as badiya, in central Syria.
Meanwhile, William Roebuck, senior US diplomat, has visited Kurdish-held areas in Deir Ezzor. The visit comes as the Kurds and the regime engage in difficult talks over the fate of territory under SDF control.
With the regime focused on crushing the rebellion, Kurdish forces carved out a de facto autonomous region in the country's north and northeast.
Iranian forces and Tehran-backed Shiite militias have also been key to Assad's recapture of large swathes of Deir Ezzor province, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Assad's regime now controls nearly two-thirds of Syria and is determined to reassert its authority over Kurdish-held territory, which forms the lion's share of the rest.
But Kurdish leaders and their supporters are desperate to salvage what they can of their painstakingly built institutions.
Syria's war has left more than 350,000 people dead and displaced millions since it broke out with the brutal repression of an initially peaceful uprising in 2011. (With AFP)
Zaman Al Wasl
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