Amader Brahmanbaria.com
BEIRUT: Daesh militants launched an assault on a Kurdish-controlled town on Syria’s border with Turkey on Saturday, prompting airstrikes by the US-led coalition to try to drive them back.
The militants attacked Tel Abyad, which is controlled by the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia, and the nearby town of Suluk in the early hours of Saturday, YPG spokesman Redur Xelil and Turkish security sources told Reuters.
Coalition war planes carried out 10 airstrikes to try to repel the assault, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported. It said at least 45 Daesh militants and 20 Kurdish militia fighters had been killed.
Xelil said the YPG and Syrian Kurdish internal security forces were able to “crush this attack and encircle the attackers,” although he gave no casualty toll.
The YPG captured Tel Abyad from Daesh last year in an offensive backed by US-led airstrikes. The town lies north of Raqqa and had been a key supply line for the jihadi capital.
The Turkish security sources said the attack was launched on two fronts and that the sound of gunfire and explosions, audible from the town of Akcakale on the Turkish side, had continued for several hours. Intermittent gunfire could still be heard.
