US-backed alliance captures key dam from ISIL: Alliance spokesman

A U.S.-backed alliance of Syrian Kurds and Arab rebel groups, supported by U.S. coalition planes, captured a dam on Dec. 26 from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), cutting one of its main supply routes across the Euphrates, an alliance spokesman said.

Colonel Talal Selo said the seizure of the Tishrin dam helps isolate the militants' strongholds in northern Aleppo from their territories east of the Euphrates river, where Raqqa city, their de facto capital, is located. 

Selo said the rapid advance overnight by thousands of troops from the Democratic Forces of Syria had brought the dam upstream from Raqqa under their control on Dec. 26 afternoon. 

Since the U.S.-backed alliance was formed last October, its fighters have opened several major offensives against ISIL with the ultimate goal of capturing Raqqa. 

Selo said the alliance troops had cut one main ISIL supply line from the towns of Bab and Minbij in the northern Aleppo countryside held by the militants on the road to Raqqa city, he added. 

The intensive aerial bombing by a U.S.-led coalition was instrumental in the rapid advances since the campaign started four days ago, he said. 

"The coalition jets participated in the previous campaigns and this one and future ones, too. We have a strategic partnership in which they provide the air cover and we provide the troops," he told Reuters. 

Selo said the militants suffered heavy casualties in the latest round of fighting which involved several thousand fighters from the Democratic Forces of Syria with heavy armour. 

The alliance troops includes the Kurdish YPG militia, various Arab groups including Jaysh al-Thuwwar (Army of Rebels) and the Arab tribal Jaysh al-Sanadeed, and an...