AS SUSAH: US-backed forces waiting recently near the village of Susah in the eastern province of Deir Ezzor, near the Syrian border with Iraq — AFP file BEIRUT, Oct 28 (AFP): The Islamic State group has ousted a US-backed coalition of Kurdish and Arab forces from its holdout in eastern Syria, killing dozens of fighters, a monitoring group said on Sunday.
A Syrian Democratic Forces commander, asking not to be named, confirmed the SDF retreat from the Hajin pocket near the Iraqi border seven weeks into an offensive.
The SDF, who are backed by air strikes of the US-led coalition, launched its campaign to retake the IS holdout on September 10.
But they have faced a fierce fightback from the jihadists, including under the cover of sandstorms, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says.
"In counterattacks since Friday to Sunday dawn, IS has taken back all positions to which the SDF had advanced inside the Hajin pocket," the monitoring group's chief Rami Abdel Rahman said.
The Observatory reported 72 SDF fighters killed, as IS took advantage of the storm that hampered coalition air cover and dispatched suicide bombers as part of their fightback.
The SDF commander told AFP that his forces had faced a "strong dust storm" and lacked local knowledge of the terrain.
Unlike IS, "our forces don't know the area and can't move around in conditions of zero visibility," he said.
"Military reinforcements and heavy weapons have been sent to the front and some units will be replaced by more experienced ones," the commander said.
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