Hundreds of people were taken by Daesh (ISIS) fighters from a displacement camp in east Syria during a militant counterattack against advancing U.S.-backed forces, an activist group said Saturday.
The militants raided the camp Friday, taking "more than 100 families" including relatives of Daesh defectors and of militants killed in fighting, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
A number of fighters of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) died trying to defend the camp in a battle that lasted several hours, the Britain-based activist group said.
The U.S.-backed SDF launched a major assault on Sept. 10 on the small stretch of the Euphrates Valley around the town of Hajin where they estimate some 3,000 militants are holed up.
But they have sustained heavy casualties in the operation being conducted with U.S.-led air support.
Since Wednesday, 37 SDF fighters have been killed in militant counterattacks, the Observatory said.
Daesh has lost 58 fighters, most of them in retaliatory coalition airstrikes, it added.
"Islamic State is pressing its attacks in the Hajin area as the SDF battles to hold them off with the support of the international coalition," Observatory chief Rami Abdel-Rahman told AFP.
But a prolonged sandstorm has made it difficult for the coalition to carry out air strikes.
Daesh published statements on its social media accounts describing a number of attacks by "soldiers of the caliphate" against SDF forces in the Hajin area.
The battle for Hajin has claimed the lives of 176 SDF fighters and 325 Daesh militants since its launch last month, according to Observatory figures.
The SDF, backed by the coalition, has ousted Daesh from swathes of northern and eastern Syria, including Raqqa, the de facto capital of the militants' so-called caliphate.
Founded in 2015, the SDF is spearheaded by the People's Protection Units (YPG), a powerful Kurdish armed movement.
Hundreds of foreigners have joined the YPG to battle Daesh, which has its own notorious contingent of foreign fighters.
AFP
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