Syrian, Kurdish forces battle ISIL in key border area

Syrian regime forces and Kurdish militia fought separate battles with the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) on March 2 in a strategic area near the Iraqi and Turkish borders, a monitoring group said.
      
Forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad and fighters from the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) launched uncoordinated offensives against ISIL in the northeastern province of Hasakeh, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
      
Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP that after three days of clashes, regime forces bolstered by fighters from Arab tribes had secured control over 23 villages in the centre of the province from ISIL.
      
Syria's official news agency SANA put the number at 31.       

State television said the army offensive would continue until it controlled the main road linking the provincial capital Hasakeh and the city of Qamishli.
      
"ISIL has launched counter-attacks on regime checkpoints, while the regime fortifies its positions with support from local Arab tribes," Abdel Rahman added.
      
He said YPG fighters were meanwhile also battling ISIL alongside Arab tribes outside the village of Tal Tamr in Hasakeh's southwest.
      
"The YPG fighters in Tal Tamr are shelling ISIL around the area to lure IS to respond, so they can identify their positions" and call for strikes by the US-led coalition waging an air campaign against IS, he said.
      
"But IS is avoiding any response in order not to give away its positions."       

YPG spokesman Redur Khalil confirmed to AFP that the Kurdish fighters were conducting "attack-and-retreat operations with ISIL on two fronts.
      
"The first is around Tal Tamr, in order to...