Syrian Kurdish forces said to capture most of rebel-held former military airport

Kurdish-led fighters, aided by heavy Russian bombing, captured a rebel-held former Syrian army military airport near the border with Turkey overnight as they expand in the strategic area where the Syrian army was making rapid advances, a monitor and rebels said on Thursday.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights confirmed earlier reports about Menagh airport, the scene of heavy fighting between Kurds and Syrian insurgents, adding that Russian planes staged at least 30 raids against insurgents holding out there.

Rebels say the Kurdish YPG militias have been taking advantage of Syrian insurgent preoccupation with fending off a major Syrian ground offensive launched last week in northern Aleppo countryside to gain ground from rebels in the area near a main border crossing with Turkey.

 

 

 

REUTERS