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As many as 50 fighters of the Islamic State (IS) terror group were either killed or injured on Sunday during fresh clashes with the Kurdish fighters in Syria's predominantly Kurdish city of Ayn al-Arab on the Syrian-Turkish borders, according to the pan-Arab al-Mayadeen TV.
The IS fighters were killed and injured during the clashes that were raging near al-Hal marketplace northeast of Ayn al-Arab, also known as Kobane, said al-Mayadeen, citing Kurdish sources from the city.
The report said the IS fighters continued to shell the city with mortar shells on Sunday at a time the Kurdish militants of the People's Protection Units (YPG) and other affiliated Kurdish groups kept advancing in the eastern rim of the city. It added that the IS fighters staged a blast in eastern Ayn al-Arab by a booby-trapped vehicle, spelling no further details.
Meanwhile, the oppositional Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based monitoring group, said Sunday that over 800 fighters and civilians were killed during the month-long fighting in Ayn al- Arab.
The IS unleashed its wide-scale offensive against Ayn al-Arab, bordering Turkey, on Sept. 15 in a bid to capture the city, which would enable the IS to link its self-declared capital of al-Raqqa province with Ayn al-Arab and stretch its territory to areas bordering Turkey.
Syrian government officials and Kurdish activists have accused Turkey of aiding the IS in capturing the city so as to eliminate the Kurdish presence in the area and impose a long-desired buffer area protected by a no-fly zone in northern Syria.
The IS has captured more than 300 villages around the city and managed to storm parts of it after forcing over 160,000 people to flee toward neighboring Turkey. Enditem
