BEIRUT, June 4 (Reuters) - U.S.-backed Syrian militias said they seized a major dam on the Euphrates river from Islamic State on Sunday, their latest gain as they push towards Raqqa city.

The Syrian Democratic Forces, an alliance of Kurdish and Arab fighters, said they captured the Baath Dam in the morning, renaming it Freedom Dam. The hydroelectric dam lies some 22 km upstream of Raqqa, Islamic State's base of operations in Syria.

The spokesman for the Kurdish YPG militia, the SDF's key component, said fighters were combing nearby villages for mines and shoring up their defensive lines. "The dam has been completely liberated," Nouri Mahmoud said.

The advance means the SDF now hold all three major dams along the Euphrates, after gaining control of Syria's largest dam last month.

With air strikes and special forces from the U.S.-led coalition, the SDF have been encircling Raqqa to take the city, which Islamic State has used as a hub to plan attacks abroad.

The alliance advanced in recent months to within several kilometres (miles) of the centre of Raqqa, facing fierce resistance from Islamic State. Fighting since late last year has displaced tens of thousands of people according to United Nations sources, with many flooding camps in the area.

The operation to storm the city will start in the next "few days", Mahmoud had said on Saturday. The Raqqa assault will pile more pressure on the jihadist group's self-declared "caliphate" as it faces defeat in the Iraqi city of Mosul and retreats across much of Syria.

Islamic State still controls swathes of Syria's eastern deserts bordering Iraq and most of Deir al-Zor province, which would be its last major foothold in Syria they lose Raqqa. (Reporting by Ellen Francis; Editing by Catherine Evans) </s> BEIRUT (Reuters) - U.S.-backed Syrian militias said they seized a major dam on the Euphrates river from Islamic State on Sunday, their latest gain as they push towards Raqqa city.

FILE PHOTO: Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) fighters ride on vehicles in the north of Raqqa city, Syria February 5, 2017. REUTERS/Rodi Said/File Photo

The Syrian Democratic Forces, an alliance of Kurdish and Arab fighters, said they captured the Baath Dam in the morning, renaming it Freedom Dam. The hydroelectric facility lies 22 kilometers upstream of Raqqa, where Islamic State’s operations in Syria are based.

The spokesman for the Kurdish YPG militia, the SDF’s key component, said fighters were combing nearby villages for mines and shoring up their defensive lines. “The dam has been completely liberated,” Nouri Mahmoud said.

The advance means the SDF now hold all three major dams along the Euphrates, after gaining control of Syria’s largest dam last month.

With air strikes and special forces from the U.S.-led coalition, the SDF have been encircling Raqqa, which Islamic State has used as a hub to plan attacks abroad.

The operation to storm the city will start in the next “few days”, Mahmoud said on Saturday. The Raqqa assault will pile more pressure on the jihadist group’s self-declared “caliphate” as it faces defeat in the Iraqi city of Mosul and retreats across much of Syria.

Islamic State still controls swathes of Syria’s eastern desert bordering Iraq and most of Deir al-Zor province, which would be its last major foothold in Syria after losing Raqqa.

The SDF has advanced in recent months to within several kilometers (miles) of the center of Raqqa, facing fierce resistance from Islamic State.

Fighting since late last year has displaced tens of thousands of people, United Nations sources say, with many flooding camps in the area and others stranded in the desert.

The U.N. human rights office has raised concerns about increasing reports of civilian deaths as air strikes escalate. The Raqqa campaign has “resulted in massive civilian casualties, displacement, and serious infrastructure destruction” so far, it said in a May report.

Islamic State militants have also reportedly forbidden civilians from leaving, it added.

The United States-led coalition says it is careful to avoid civilian casualties in its bombing runs in Syria and Iraq. </s> Syrian Democratic Forces fighters ride on vehicles in the north of Raqqa city, Syria, February 5 (Reuters file photo)

BEIRUT — US-backed Syrian militias said they seized a major dam on the Euphrates River from the Daesh extremists on Sunday, their latest gain as they push towards Raqqa city.

The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), an alliance of Kurdish and Arab fighters, said they captured the Baath Dam in the morning, renaming it Freedom Dam. The hydroelectric facility lies 22 kilometres upstream of Raqqa, where the Daesh group’s operations in Syria are based.

The spokesman for the Kurdish YPG militia, the SDF’s key component, said fighters were combing nearby villages for mines and shoring up their defensive lines. “The dam has been completely liberated,” Nouri Mahmoud said.

The advance means the SDF now hold all three major dams along the Euphrates, after gaining control of Syria’s largest dam last month.

With air strikes and special forces from the US-led coalition, the SDF have been encircling Raqqa, which Daesh has used as a hub to plan attacks abroad.

The operation to storm the city will start in the next “few days”, Mahmoud said on Saturday. The Raqqa assault will pile more pressure on the extremist group’s self-declared “caliphate” as it faces defeat in the Iraqi city of Mosul and retreats across much of Syria.

The Daesh group still controls swathes of Syria’s eastern desert bordering Iraq and most of Deir Ezzor province, which would be its last major foothold in Syria after losing Raqqa.

The SDF has advanced in recent months to within several kilometres of the centre of Raqqa, facing fierce resistance from Daesh.

Fighting since late last year has displaced tens of thousands of people, United Nations sources say, with many flooding camps in the area and others stranded in the desert.

The UN human rights office has raised concerns about increasing reports of civilian deaths as air strikes escalate. The Raqqa campaign has “resulted in massive civilian casualties, displacement, and serious infrastructure destruction” so far, it said in a May report.

The Daesh militants have also reportedly forbidden civilians from leaving, it added.

The United States-led coalition says it is careful to avoid civilian casualties in its bombing runs in Syria and Iraq. </s> BEIRUT (Reuters) – U.S.-backed Syrian militias said they seized a major dam on the Euphrates river from Islamic State on Sunday, their latest gain as they push toward Raqqa city.

 Original Article </s> The Jabar citadel on the banks of Lake Assad was taken by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) alliance on Thursday, militia spokesman Talal Silo said. It is located near a dam on the Euphrates River that the U.S.-backed alliance also aims to capture in the current phase of its campaign.

Maamoun Abdulkarim, the Syrian government's antiquities chief, told Reuters in Damascus the SDF's capture of the castle represented a "victory for the Syrian people because liberating the citadel from Daesh (IS) is saving Syrian heritage".

The SDF, which includes the powerful Kurdish YPG militia, is the main partner for the United States in the campaign it is leading against Islamic State in Syria. SDF forces are just a few kilometres (miles) from a major dam also held by IS.

Islamic State is also being fought in separate campaigns by the Russian-backed Syrian army in Deir al-Zor province and near the ancient town of Palmyra, which IS seized for a second time in December, and by Turkish-backed Syrian rebels in Aleppo province near the Syrian-Turkish border.

Silo said SDF advances had been slowed by thick fog that had allowed Islamic State insurgents to use infiltration tactics to attack SDF positions, he said. The weather had now improved, he added in an interview over the internet.

"The direction of our forces is towards the area of the dam at present," Silo said.

The SDF launched a multi-stage operation in Raqqa province in November aimed ultimately at capturing the city from Islamic State. The first phase gained territory to the north of the city and the current phase is targeting areas to the west of it. </s> The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) say they are in control of 90% of the town of Mansoura. Photo: Reuters

Beirut: US-backed Syrian forces say they are close to capturing an Islamic State-held town that lies halfway between the former IS-stronghold of Tabqa and its de facto capital, Raqqa, in northern Syria.

The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) say they are in control of 90% of the town of Mansoura, approximately 26km southwest of Raqqa.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says the SDF has been engaged in fierce fighting with IS militants along the southern bank of the Euphrates River, around Mansoura. The river leads to Raqqa.

The US has backed the SDF with weapons, air power, and ground support in its campaign to defeat the IS group in Syria. Its target for now is Raqqa, which has been held by the militants since 2014. </s> The US-led coalition have air-dropped ground forces near the Islamic State-held town of Tabqa in northern Syria, opening a new front in the campaign to capture the jihadist group’s nearby stronghold of Raqqa city.

The Pentagon said on Wednesday the US military had airlifted allied Syrian Arab militia fighters near Tabqa, providing them fire support in a move aimed at retaking a major dam that remains in the hands of Islamic State.

The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a militia alliance including Arab and Kurdish fighters, said US forces had deployed with them in the air drop, saying the operation also aimed to block any advance by government forces from the west.

A local official familiar with SDF operations said the airdrop took place on Tuesday.

The SDF, which also includes the powerful Kurdish YPG militia, is fighting to encircle Raqqa city with support from the US-led coalition, including air support and backing on the ground from US special forces.

The campaign to capture Raqqa from Islamic State appears to be gathering pace as an overlapping, US-backed effort in Iraq is drawing closer to driving the jihadist group from Mosul.

Major Adrian Rankine-Galloway, a Pentagon spokesman, said U.S. air assets had been used to airlift members of the Syrian Arab Coalition, part of the SDF, in a bid to retake the Tabqa Dam. He did not provide details on the size of the forces moved or what type of fire support was provided.

The SDF, in a statement circulated on an official Telegram account, said: “American forces have conducted a landing operation for US ground forces, along with (SDF) special forces”.

The landing forces had seized four small villages in the area west of Tabqa and cut a main highway that links the provinces of Raqqa, Deir al-Zor and Aleppo, it said.

The local official familiar with SDF operations told Reuters the air-drop operation aimed to secure a crossing point for forces coming in boats across the Euphrates, which began arriving at dawn on Wednesday.

The official said the air drop was “a pioneering step”.

Islamic State captured the Tabqa Dam, also known as the Euphrates Dam, and a nearby major air base at the height of its expansion in Syria and Iraq in 2014. It is located about 40 km (25 miles) to the west of Raqqa city.

The head of the YPG told Reuters last week a final assault to capture Raqqa city from IS would begin at the start of April. The Pentagon said a decision had yet to be taken.

Turkey is pressing Washington for a role in the Raqqa campaign. Ankara is concerned about the growing influence of the YPG, seeing it as an extension of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which has fought a three-decade insurgency in Turkey.

The SDF cut the last main road out of Raqqa earlier this month, narrowing in on the city from the north, east and west.

The only way in or out of Raqqa now is over the Euphrates River that borders the city to the south.

Air strikes by the US-led coalition near Raqqa have escalated this month, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. The Britain-based war monitoring group said an air strike killed at 33 people near Raqqa when it hit a school sheltering displaced people on Monday.

The Observatory said it believed the strike was carried out by the US-led coalition.

The Pentagon said on Wednesday that there were no indications that a strike near Raqqa had hit civilians, but that it would carry out further investigations.

Islamic State is losing ground to three separate campaigns in northern Syria – by the SDF, by the Russian-backed Syrian army and by Turkish-backed Syrian rebels </s> HUKOUMIYA, Syria/BEIRUT (Reuters) – The U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said on Tuesday it had launched a battle to capture Raqqa, Islamic State's de facto Syrian capital, piling pressure on the jihadists whose self-declared caliphate is in retreat across Syria and Iraq. </s> This frame grab from video provided by Qasioun a Syrian opposition media outlet, shows U.S.-backed fighters taking a rest during fighting with the Islamic State group near Ein Issa, north of Raqqa, Syria. Backed by U.S. airstrikes, Kurdish-led Syrian fighters clashed on Monday with Islamic State militants north of the city of Raqqa in Syria as they pushed ahead in their offensive aiming to liberate the city that has been the de facto capital of the extremist group since 2014. (Qasioun a Syrian Opposition Media Outlet, via AP) This frame grab from video provided by Qasioun a Syrian opposition media outlet, shows U.S.-backed fighters taking a rest during fighting with the Islamic State group near Ein Issa, north of Raqqa, Syria. Backed by U.S. airstrikes, Kurdish-led Syrian fighters clashed on Monday with Islamic State militants north of the city of Raqqa in Syria as they pushed ahead in their offensive aiming to liberate the city that has been the de facto capital of the extremist group since 2014. (Qasioun a Syrian Opposition Media Outlet, via AP)

U.S.-backed Syrian militias have launched an operation against Islamic State in the north of Deir al-Zor province, a statement said on Saturday.

Assaults would aim to drive the jihadist militants out of areas they hold north and east of the Euphrates river, close to the Iraqi border, said the statement from the Deir al-Zor Military Council, which is fighting as part of the Syrian Democratic Forces alliance (SDF).

A senior SDF official told Reuters on Friday they would launch attacks from the south of Hasaka, which is controlled by the Kurdish YPG militia, as part of a wider offensive to drive Islamic State out of Raqqa city and territory to its southeast.

With U.S.-led air cover and special forces on the ground, the alliance of mostly Kurdish and Arab militias is fighting to seize Raqqa, upstream along the Euphrates River.

Spearheaded by the YPG, the SDF says it has taken 65 percent of Raqqa city from Islamic State.

In the Deir al-Zor assault, the SDF would push towards the Euphrates River from the east of the province, which borders Iraq.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group reported that the SDF had already made advances against IS in Deir al-Zor after fierce clashes and seized several hills and a village in the province’s northwestern countryside.

The operation will likely bring the U.S.-backed militias into closer proximity with the Syrian military and allied forces, who have advanced on Deir al-Zor city.

The Syrian army reached its enclave in Deir al-Zor city this week, on the western bank of the Euphrates, breaching an Islamic State siege that had lasted three years.

With the help of Russian air power and Iran-backed militias, the advance capped months of steady progress east against Islamic State across the desert.

The eastwards march has on occasion brought the Syrian army and its allies into conflict with U.S.-backed forces.

Still, the rival campaigns have mostly stayed out of each other’s way, and the U.S.-led coalition has stressed it is not seeking war with Damascus.

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The U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) take control of the Baath Dam on the Euphrates, near the ISIL stronghold of Raqqa, and upon doing so, rename it "Freedom Dam".