Syria: The Executive Summary, 3/10

Dozens Killed in Clashes for Control of Tal Tamr in Hassakeh Province

At least 40 Kurdish fighters and ISIS militants were killed as they battled for control of Tal Tamr in Hassakeh province, AFP reports.

According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, the clashes erupted when ISIS advanced close to the town, seeking to capture it because of its strategic location. However, the Kurds were able to prevent the group from advancing.

“Taking it would allow ISIS to dominate a key road between the eastern part of Hassakeh and the town of the same name that are held by the Kurds, and also gain access to the Iraqi border and the jihadi bastion in Mosul beyond,” AFP writes.

This weekend, Islamic State militants launched an offensive on a string of predominantly Christian villages in northeastern Syria, sparking violent clashes with Kurdish militiamen and their local allies.

The attack, which targeted three villages along the Khabur River in Hassakeh province – a strategic gateway that would help the Islamic State consolidate the territory it holds in Iraq and Syria – comes just a week after the extremists kidnapped more than 220 Assyrian Christians from the same area.

Kurdish forces, backed by U.S.-led coalition strikes and local rebel forces, have been battling Islamic State in northern Syria since it captured large swathes of territory near the border with Turkey.

It has also been announced that a third foreigner fighting alongside Syrian Kurdish forces was killed yesterday in clashes with the Islamic State near Tal Tamr, Reuters reports.

A German woman, Ivana Hoffman, a member of the MLKP, a militant left-wing group close to the YPG and PKK separatist movement in Turkey, reportedly joined the Kurdish fighters defending Christian villages in northeastern Syria.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights estimates that over 100 Western fighters have joined the Kurds in Syria.

Nine Islamic State Members Killed in Infighting After Attempt to Flee Over Turkish Border

“About 95 captives, including Kurdish fighters, escaped from an Islamic State-run prison in northern Syria but most have been recaptured,” Reuters reports.

The escapees attempted to flee from the town of al-Bab, 30km (20 miles) south of the Turkish border. The group included Syrian civilians, Kurdish fighters and members of Islamic battalions opposed to the more hard-line Islamic State.

The Islamic State has since encouraged civilians to capture the escapees, the Syrian Observatory for Human rights said.

“They have set up new checkpoints and have been searching houses,” the Observatory’s head, Rami Abdulrahman, said.

During the unrest, at least nine members of the Islamic State were killed after attempting to flee over the Turkish border, Reuters reports.

Fighting erupted on Saturday when 10 Islamic State combatants – one Tunisian and nine European fighters – broke out of a prison run by the group and tried to escape. Five of the escapees and four of those trying to prevent them were killed.

The group had previously tried to escape from Syria and had been jailed, according to the Syrian observatory for Human Rights.

“It is not the first time that Islamic State, which controls tracts of Syria and Iraq, has killed its own members. The Observatory reported in December that the group had killed more than 120 of its fighters in two months, most of them foreigners trying to return home,” Reuters writes.

The Washington Post reported on signs that foreign jihadists are growing disillusioned, “with activists in the Syrian provinces of Deir al-Zour and Raqqa describing several instances in which foreigners have sought local help to escape across the border to Turkey.”

Thousands of foreigners from across the world have joined the Islamic State, which now controls large swathes of territory in Syria and Iraq.

http://www.syriadeeply.org/articles/2015/03/6929/syria-executive-summary-310/