{"id":18144,"date":"2018-10-12T07:23:35","date_gmt":"2018-10-12T07:23:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=18144"},"modified":"2018-10-12T07:23:35","modified_gmt":"2018-10-12T07:23:35","slug":"us-backed-fighters-brave-sandstorm-to-battle-terrorists-in-syria","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=18144","title":{"rendered":"US-backed fighters brave sandstorm to battle terrorists in Syria"},"content":{"rendered":"<div data-io-article-url=\"http:\/\/www.arabnews.com\/node\/1386356\/middle-east\" readability=\"100\">\n<p>\nBEIRUT: US-backed fighters braved a sandstorm to battle the Daesh group in eastern Syria on Thursday in heavy clashes that killed several fighters on both sides.<\/p>\n<p>\nThe US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, a Kurdish-led group, said it was fighting to retake the village of Sousah, where the extremists took advantage of the poor visibility to launch a counteroffensive.<\/p>\n<p>\nThe Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the fighting began Wednesday and killed at least 10 US-allied fighters, with the fate of 35 others unknown. It said 18 Daesh militants were killed.<\/p>\n<p>\nOn Wednesday, Daesh launched \u201ca counter attack against SDF positions around Hajjin and nearby towns,\u201d the Observatory said.<\/p>\n<p>\n\u201cViolent clashes subsequently erupted and are still ongoing,\u201d said Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman.<\/p>\n<p>\nThe SDF denied any of its fighters had been captured during the attack.<\/p>\n<p>\n\u201cNo fighter from the SDF was captured by Daesh on the Deir Ezzor front. This information is not true,\u201d SDF media official Mustefa Bali told AFP.<\/p>\n<p>\nThe Daesh-linked Aamaq news agency reported 18 deaths among the SDF fighters and posted photos online of what it said were some of the bodies.<\/p>\n<p>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" height=\"513\" src=\"http:\/\/www.arabnews.com\/sites\/default\/files\/userimages\/20\/sdf_embed.png\" width=\"296\">In recent years the SDF, with US air support, has driven Daesh from much of northern and eastern Syria. The extremists have also suffered a series of defeats at the hands of Syrian government forces and Iraqi forces, losing virtually all the territory that once made up their self-styled caliphate.<\/p>\n<p>\nSousah is in one of the last pockets of territory held by Daesh, which has put up stiff resistance. The advancing SDF has had to contend with mines, sniper fire and suicide attacks.<\/p>\n<p>\nFounded in 2015, the SDF is spearheaded by the People\u2019s Protection Units (YPG), a powerful Kurdish armed movement.<\/p>\n<p>\nHundreds of foreigners have joined the YPG to fight Daesh.<\/p>\n<p>\nOn Wednesday, the force announced that a French national fighting among its ranks had been killed near Hajjin.<\/p>\n<p>\nFarid Medjahed, born in the French city of Marseilles, died on Oct. 6 fighting Daesh there, the YPG said. It did not say when he arrived in Syria but said it had only been a \u201cshort stay.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\nIn February, the YPG announced that three European nationals had been killed in clashes in Syria.<\/p>\n<p>\nIn one month of fighting for Hajjin, at least 139 SDF fighters and 267 extremists have been killed, the Observatory said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>BEIRUT: US-backed fighters braved a sandstorm to battle the Daesh group in eastern Syria on Thursday in heavy clashes that killed several fighters on both sides. The US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, a Kurdish-led group, said it was fighting to retake the village of Sousah, where the extremists took advantage of the poor visibility to launch&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":18145,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18144","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18144","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18144"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18144\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/18145"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18144"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}