IS kills US-backed fighters in showdown
China Daily | Updated: 2018-10-29 07:59
DAMASCUS - At least 70 fighters with the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces have been killed and 100 others wounded over the past 24 hours as a result of a counteroffensive by the Islamic State group in eastern Syria, a war monitor reported on Saturday.
The IS counter-offensive against the SDF started on Friday and saw the group recapture areas it had lost to the SDF during an ongoing military showdown in the last IS-held pocket in the countryside of Deir al-Zour.
A Syrian Democratic Forces commander, asking not to be named, confirmed the SDF retreat from the Hajin pocket near the Iraqi border seven weeks into an offensive.
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