The People’s Protection Units (YPG), backed up by the US-led coalition’s airpower and military advisors, reportedly repelled an ISIS attack on the village of Suwaydiya in the Syrian province of al-Raqqah.
YPG units killed some 48 ISIS members during the fighting, according to pro-Kurdish sources. This number cannot be confirmed independently.
Reports added that this was an ISIS attempt to disrupt the recent YPG advances in the province. However, most likely this was a common attack aimed to annoy YPG forces in the area.
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Earlier today, ISIS attacked one of the security offices of the YPG in Suwaydiya and killed 3 YPG fighters. The killed Kurdish fighters were from the Kurdish city of Kobane and were identified as Ahmed Hisen (aka Mazlum Kobani), Ferhad Haji (aka Brusk Kobani), and Bozan Mihemed (aka Zinar Kobani).
The three YPG fighters, killed in the IS attack (Photo: ARA News)
Earlier this week, the YPG forces, also known as the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in mainstream media, announced that during the second phase of the so-called Euphrates Wrath operation, they have managed to liberate 2,480 square kilometers of the Syrian territories in the western Raqqa from the IS, recapturing 196 villages, dozens of farms and strategic hills. In the first phase of the operation, which was started on November 6, 2016, Kurdish fighters liberated about 560 square kilometers in the northern part of Raqqa.
“Thus, since the beginning of the battle for Raqqa, 3,200 square kilometers have been cleared, including 236 villages,” Kurdish leaders said on Monday.
It will be interesting to see where and when they end phase 2. Will it be after they take on the Tabqa dam?
Contrary to some commenters here, I think the dam can be taken. Indeed, it is 4,5 kms. Those kms are not like a dam with waters at two sides, which would be indeed hard to take, but only has a small stretch with water at two sides. For the most part, there is land at the other side of the dam.
Should they succeed in taking the dam, it would be wise to have a bridgehead on the southside of the river by taking the city and the airport and cutting off the two highways there.
Crossing downstream sounds rather risky. Imagine Kurds/SDF being down in river basin when ISUS decides to blow the southern power house section of dam! I would not put it past them. They may figure if we can’t have it, neither will they (a scorched earth policy). Having Kurd forces trying to cross downriver may actually be an added incentive to do this. It would be worse than blowing all the dikes and floodgates in the Netherlands. A real disaster. Just look at the size of Lake Assad on map. Besides, to continue to isolate Raqqa, they only need to cut the roads from both dams on north shore. Can ISUS blow the concrete power station section? I do not know, but they have had much practice in doing demolitions.