ISIL recaptures Syria’s Ayn Issa town from Kurdish forces

A monitoring group has said that ISIL Takfiri terrorists have recaptured a Syrian town from Kurdish forces near the city of Raqqa, but the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) say the battle for the city is still on.

ISIL forces have overrun the city of Ayn Issa and its surrounding areas, the so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported on Monday; however, Syrian Kurdish activists and the YPG have denied the report, saying that they are still engaged in clashes with the militants inside the town and on its perimeter.

Kurdish forces liberated the town from ISIL two weeks ago. Ayn Issa is located 50 kilometers (31 miles) north of Raqqa and is situated at an intersection on the main road from the northwestern Syrian province of Aleppo to the northeastern province of Hasakah.

According to the UK-based group, clashes also broke out between Kurdish troops and Takfiri terrorists in Hasakah.

Earlier in the day, ISIL released an unverified video purportedly showing the execution of two Syrians for spying in Raqqa.

The video, which was released on an ISIL-linked Facebook page, showed two young men in orange jumpsuits confessing to filming militant-held locations and sending the footage to a person abroad.

In the video, the men were tied to a tree and then shot in the head at close range.