IS kills US-backed fighters in showdown

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.