Syrian Kurdish forces retake Syrian town from ISIL

Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) forces, backed by Assyrian Christians, have managed to retake a strategic town in Syria’s northeastern province of Hasaka from Takfiri ISIL militants, as they continue to push the terrorists back from the area.

The YPG fighters took control of the town of Tel Hamis, which is on the border with Turkey and Iraq, early on Saturday.

Redur Xelil, a YPG spokesman, hailed the recapture of Tel Hamis as “a great victory.”

“This is a great victory for our fighters because it cuts a key supply route for Daesh (ISIL) from Iraq,” he said.

Xelil said Kurdish fighters are now combing Tel Hamis for terrorists and mines, and are advancing against extremists in neighboring towns.

The Britain-based so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said ISIL militants fled after Kurdish fighters broke into Tel Hamis from the east and south.

The director of the monitoring group, Rami Abdurrahman, said the Kurds have already seized more than 100 villages around Tel Hamis, and at least 175 ISIL members have been killed over the past several days in and around the town.

The YPG forces have made several territorial achievements against the ISIL since liberating the Kurdish border town of Kobani after months of clashes with the terrorist group.

During the past week, Tel Hamis and other towns in Hasaka have been the scene of heavy fighting against ISIL terrorists, who, according to reports on February 24, kidnapped an estimated 220 Assyrian Christians from the nearby villages in Tel Tamer countryside.

Assyrians, who come from one of the world’s oldest Christian communities, have been under increasing threat by the ISIL terrorists recently.