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BEIRUT (AP) – Syrian troops killed dozens of jihadi fighters, including a prominent media activist, in heavy clashes on Thursday around a sprawling northern air base that the Islamic State group is trying to seize, activists and state media said.
Islamic State fighters began a long-anticipated offensive on Wednesday to seize Tabqa air base in the northern province of Raqqa, the last position held by the Syrian government in a province that is a stronghold of the al-Qaida breakaway group.
The assault on the Tabqa air base had been expected for weeks. Islamic State fighters have tightened their siege of the military facility in recent days, capturing a string of nearby villages.
Syria's state news agency SANA quoted an unnamed military official as saying that "large numbers of terrorists were wiped out" near the air base. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says the death toll among Islamic State fighters is at least 11 and possibly as many as "tens."
Beirut-based Al-Mayadeen TV said more than 150 members of the Islamic State were killed in an ambush near the air base. Al-Manar, a network run by the Lebanese Hezbollah, which is a close ally of the Syrian government, gave a similar number.
The Raqqa Media Center, an activist collective, reported fierce clashes around the facility accompanied by government airstrikes. It said a prominent Islamic State media activist known as Abu Moussa, who appeared in a recent Vice News documentary about the group, was among those killed. It said that another media activist, Abu Abdullah al-Ansari, was also killed.
The Observatory, which relies on a network of activists inside Syria, confirmed Abu Moussa and al-Ansari's deaths.
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