US-backed Syrian forces 'fully capture' Tabqa from ISIL

A US-backed alliance of Syrian Kurdish and Arab fighters has fully captured the city of Tabqa and a strategic dam nearby from ISIL, according to the group and a monitor. The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said on Wednesday it had taken full control of the contested city with the help of US-led coalition air raids after more than a month of heavy fighting. "Our forces have seized control of both the dam and the city of Tabqa," Jihan Sheikh, of the Ghadab al-Furat (dubbed Wrath of the Euphrates) told Al Jazeera. Ghadab al-Furat is a Kurdish group fighting under the SDF. They launched a campaign in October 2016 to retake Raqqa, the de facto capital of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), in northern Syria. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based monitor that relies on a network of contacts on the ground to track developments in Syria's war, also confirmed the SDF's takeover of the area. The city and the adjacent Tabqa dam are key objectives in the US-led coalition's push to retake ISIL's self-proclaimed capital of Raqqa. In March, fears about the major hydroelectric dam's integrity after fighting had forced it out of service led to a brief pause in military operations amid warnings that a collapse would be "catastrophic". 'Significant development' The recapture of Tabqa leaves no other major ISIL-held urban settlements on the eastern road to Raqqa. Al Jazeera's Charles Stratford, reporting from Gaziantep along the Syria-Turkey border, called the capture a "significant development", particularly following Washington's recently-announced decision to arm the Kurdish fighters battling ISIL in Syria. The US has said the SDF, particularly its core component, the Kurdish Peoples' Protection Units (YPG), are its most effective ground partner in the fight against ISIL in Syria. US President Donald Trump on Monday authorised the direct shipment of arms to the YPG to facilitate the takeover of Raqqa, drawing intense opposition from Turkey. Ankara says the YPG is an extension of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) separatists inside Turkey that have waged an armed campaign since 1984.