Kurdish YPG forces recapture eastern Dayr al-Zawr countryside from Daesh: Report

The US-backed Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) say they have fully recaptured the eastern Dayr al-Zawr countryside from the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group with the help of airstrikes carried out by Russia’s air force.

The YPG announced the news in a statement on Sunday, saying their fighters had managed to liberate the villages of Sweidan and Drenj in the eastern part of the Euphrates River earlier in the day.

The terrorist group has already lost all its urban strongholds in Syria but tries to maintain its staggering control over small pockets of rural areas.

According to the so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), the YPG forces on Friday entered into an ongoing fierce battle with the remnants of Daesh, which still held the villages of Abu Hamam and Kashkiyeh in the Shaitat Desert in Dayr al-Zawr. The battle is reportedly underway.

According to the UK-based monitoring group, the YPG forces have managed to wrest control over the rural areas of al-Sekkeh and al-Awiziye during the past two days.  

The YPG said in its statement that the so-called US-led military coalition and Russian forces in Syria had provided “air and logistical support, advice and coordination on the ground” and that it hoped this support would increase.

The US-led coalition has been conducting airstrikes against what are said to be Daesh targets inside Syria since September 2014 without any authorization from the Damascus government or a UN mandate. The military alliance has repeatedly been accused of targeting and killing civilians. It has also been largely incapable of fulfilling its declared aim of destroying Daesh.

The observatory said in its report that at least three civilians were killed and a number of others sustained injuries on Saturday in airstrikes carried out by the unwelcome coalition.

The YPG is the main part of a larger coalition of fighters — the so-called Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) — which has been engaged in operations aimed at liberating Raqqah, which served until recently as the main bastion of Daesh in the Arab country. The US considers the SDF, which also includes Arab militants, as its main proxy force fighting on the ground in Syria.

Washington's support for the YPG has infuriated Turkey, Syria’s neighbor to the north, which views the Kurdish alliance as a terror organization linked to the homegrown Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which has long been fighting for the establishment of an independent Kurdish state.

PressTV-US troops must leave Syria after Daesh: Russia FM

The Russian foreign minister says the US-led coalition has to leave the Arab country after the defeat of Daesh.

On Friday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said all foreign forces, including those of the so-called US-led coalition that are present in Syria without the authorization from the Damascus government, have to leave the Arab country after the total defeat of Daesh, which started its campaign of terror against Syria in 2013.

Moscow is also involved militarily in Syria. It began targeting the positions of Daesh and other militant groups in September 2015 upon an official request from the Syrian government.

Different foreign-backed terrorist groups have been wreaking havoc in Syria since 2011.

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