US-backed militias announced they have pushed the Islamic State out of the old quarters of the antient city of Tabqa, a strategically vital town controlling Syria’s largest dam. The Syrian Democratic Forces, SDF, released a statement that it had indeed taken the last three neighborhoods of the old city, and an adjoining industrial district. SDF forces have begun fighting the Islamic State, with the backing of the US-led coalition, in the three modern quarters of the town which lie along the Tabqa reservoir. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which is a Britain-based war monitor, said the SDF now controls about 80 percent of Tabqa, while the Islamic State still controls the strategic dam.
