Kurdish forces capture part of IS stronghold in Syria

BEIRUT: Kurdish fighters seized the eastern and southern outskirts on Friday of a key Islamic State group stronghold in Syria´s northeastern Hasakeh province, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor said.
Fighters from the Kurdish People´s Protection Units (YPG) had entered Tal Hamis and captured parts of the town after six days of clashes with the Jihadists, the Britain-based group said.
The town is northeast of the provincial capital, Hasakeh city, and has been under IS control for more than a year.
Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman said the town was “one of the most important strongholds” of the group in the region.
The Kurdish advance comes after days of fighting in which YPG forces have taken some 103 villages and hamlets in the area.
Since the clashes began on Saturday, at least 175 IS fighters have been killed by the Kurds and air strikes by the US-led coalition.
Additionally, 30 fighters from the YPG and Arab rebel units fighting alongside them have been killed. Among the dead was an Australian, the first Westerner to die in a Kurdish unit in Syria. The Pentagon said the coalition had carried out several air strikes in Hasakeh province on Thursday, including three near Hasakeh city and three near Tal Hamis.
The fighting in Tal Hamis came as Kurdish forces continued to battle IS after an offensive elsewhere in the province, in which the Jihadists have kidnapped at least 220 Assyrian Christians.
The offensive, in which IS also seized 10 villages, has prompted a mass exodus of an estimated 5,000 residents to the cities of Qamishli and Hasakeh.
Jean Tolo, an official with the Assyrian Organisation for Relief and Development in Qamishli said the pace of arrivals had slowed by Friday.
“We are offering the displaced food and everything they need,” he told AFP by telephone.
“There are doctors working for free ready to deal with any emergency,” he added, saying around 200 Assyrian families were sheltering in Qamishli with another 900 in Hasakeh city.
Assyrians number about 30,000 among Syria´s 1.2 million Christians and mostly live along the Khabur River in Hasakeh.
More than 210,00 people have been killed in Syria since the conflict began in March 2011.
Meanwhile, archaeologists expressed fears on Friday that after ransacking the Mosul museum in Iraq, Islamic State group Jihadists would embark on a systematic destruction of heritage in areas under their control.
Particularly at risk are the ancient cities of Hatra, a Unesco world heritage site, and Nimrud. Both are south of Mosul, which has been the Jihadists´ main hub in Iraq since June last year.
“This is not the end of the story and the international community must intervene,” said Abdelamir Hamdani, an Iraqi archaeologist at New York´s Stony Brook University.
IS released a video on Thursday showing its militants smashing ancient statues to pieces with sledgehammers at the Mosul museum.
Jihadists were also seen using a jackhammer to deface a colossal Assyrian winged bull at the Nergal gate in the large archaeological park that lies in the city.
“They told the guards they would destroy Nimrud,” said Hamdani, who used to be based in Iraq with the department of antiquities.
“It is one of the very important Assyrian capitals, there are reliefs and winged bulls there... This would be a real disaster,” he told AFP by telephone from the United States.
“Maybe they will also attack and destroy Hatra, it is a very isolated site in the desert,” he said.
Hatra is a Unesco-listed site that lies in IS-controlled territory around 100 kilometres southwest of Mosul.
Unesco says the “remains of the city, especially the temples where Hellenistic and Roman architecture blend with Eastern decorative features, attest to the greatness of its civilisation.”
“I am afraid that more destruction is in their pipeline,” said Ihsan Fethi, an Iraqi architect and heritage expert based in Jordan.
“They could do anything, they could move to the temples in Hatra, and say they´re heathens and blow it up pretty easily. Who will stop them?,” he said. On Thursday, IS blew up a 12th century mosque “because it housed a tomb”, Fethi said.