Syria conflict: Rebels "move on IS-held town near Iraq border"

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New Syrian Army

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The New Syrian Army published photographs purportedly showing its forces near Albu Kamal

US-backed Syrian rebels say they are advancing on a town on the border with Iraq held by so-called Islamic State.

A New Syrian Army statement said it had captured a number of IS positions on the outskirts of Albu Kamal, which the jihadist group seized in 2014.

The rebels earlier overran the nearby Hamdan military airport with the help of US-led coalition air strikes.

The offensive, which began on Tuesday, is aimed at cutting a key route between IS-controlled areas in Syria and Iraq.

The NSA said it was co-ordinating the assault with Iraqi government forces, who were advancing on the border from the other side.

Several hundred rebels are reportedly involved in the attack on Albu Kamal, just a few kilometres from the Iraqi border in Deir al-Zour province.

The NSA and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based monitoring group, both said on Wednesday morning that the rebels had taken control of Hamdan airport, about 5km (3 miles) north-west of the town.

Fighting was continuing between the two sides in agricultural areas around the town, and coalition warplanes were conducting air strikes on IS hideouts in the town, according to the Syrian Observatory.

NSA spokesman Mozahem al-Saloum told the Associated Press that airborne fighters had also been dropped onto the southern edge of Albu Kamal.

As the rebels advanced, IS militants beheaded five young men in the town who they claimed were working with the NSA, the Syrian Observatory said.

Rebel sources told the Reuters news agency that the jihadists had cut power and communications in Albu Kamal and dug trenches around it.

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New Syrian Army

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The NSA’s fighters have reportedly been trained at US-run camps in Jordan

The NSA was formed about 18 months ago by rebel factions driven out of eastern Syria by IS, which proclaimed the creation of a “caliphate” in June 2014.

NSA fighters, who have been trained at US-run camps in Jordan, captured the al-Tanf border crossing between Syria and Iraq from IS earlier this year.

IS is also facing pressure from a US-backed offensive in northern Syria by an alliance of Kurdish and Arab fighters, who have surrounded the town of Manbij and cut a route to the Turkish border from the IS stronghold of Raqqa.

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Syria conflict: Rebels "move on IS-held town near Iraq border"
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