IS advances on strategic town in northeast Syria, destroy ruins in Iraq

Islamic State group jihadists launched a fierce assault Saturday in a bid to gain control of a strategic town in Syria’s northeastern Hasakeh province, a monitoring group said. The IS offensive on the Hasakeh town of Tal Tamr “has advanced in several surrounding areas,” the Syrian Observatory for Human rights said. Assyrian Christian fighters withdrew from some areas to Tal Tamr itself to join Kurdish forces defending the town, said Osama Edward, head of the Sweden-based Assyrian Network for Human Rights.

This is the most violent offensive on the town in a long time.

Osama Edward, head of the Sweden-based Assyrian Network for Human Rights

If Tal Tamr falls, IS would dominate a key road in Hasakeh province that links to their bastion to the east in Iraq’s second city of Mosul. Meanwhile, in Iraq, IS militants have begun destroying the ruins of the ancient city of Hatra, Kurdish sources say. Hatra was founded in the days of the Parthian Empire over 2,000 years ago and is a Unesco world heritage site. IS says shrines and statues are “false idols” that have to be smashed. It not yet clear how extensive any damage might have been.

Middle East ISIS