Clashes intensify between SDF, Daesh in eastern Deir Ezzor

(Zaman Al Wasl)- A blast killed three US-backed fighters in eastern Deir Ezzor province as the heavy clashes continued between Daesh and Syrian Democratic Forces, local activists said Friday.

Activist Taj al-Allow said dozen, including civilians, were also wounded in the Daesh car bomb that rocked the SDF fighters in the village of Abu Hardoub.

Daesh said Thursday it had killed 15 SDF fighters in the heavy clashes with the YPG-led forces and radical group.

In its turn, the US Army troops have withdrawn from al-Hajin town to the Tanak oil fields to escape casualties.

Daesh, also, has kidnapped 11 farmers overnight near al-Jido oil field, according to al-Allow.

On Wednesday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the International coalition's airstrike on the village of Sousa had killed 16 people, including nine Daesh fighters.

The incident came days after the coalition said an airstrike on a mosque in the area targeted an insurgent command-and-control center killing a dozen fighters.

The coalition said that while the law of war protects mosques, the use of the building as a headquarters by Daesh caused it to lose that protected status.

Fighting has killed at least 414 jihadists and 227 SDF fighters in total since the assault began on September 10, the Observatory said.

IS overran large swathes of Syria and neighboring Iraq in 2014, proclaiming a "caliphate" across the land it controlled.

But the jihadist group has since lost most of its territory to various offensives in both countries.

In Syria, its presence has been reduced to parts of the vast Badia desert and the Hajin pocket in the eastern province of Deir Ezzor near the Iraqi border.

In relevant development, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday issued what he said was a "final warning" to those who would endanger Turkey's borders, saying Ankara was determined to focus its attention on Syrian Kurdish fighters east of the Euphrates.

Erdogan, who was speaking to a group of provincial leaders of his AK Party in Ankara, said Turkey would focus its attention east of the Euphrates in Syria, rather than the Manbij area, citing the presence of the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia. Turkey regards the YPG as a terrorist group.

Syria's war has killed more than 360,000 people since it erupted in 2011 with the brutal repression of anti-regime protests.

Zaman Al Wasl