WASHINGTON: The US-led coalition in Syria destroyed on Saturday a mosque in the town of Hajin which had been used as an Islamic State command and control center, the US military said.
Hajin is the last big town that the Islamic State holds in its remaining enclave east of the Euphrates River. The US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, spearheaded by the Kurdish militia, have battled to eliminate the jihadists there for several months.
The U.S. coalition said that 16 heavily armed IS fighters were using the mosque as a base to attack. “This strike killed these terrorists who presented an imminent threat, and eliminated another deadly ISIS (Islamic State) operational capability from the battlefield,” the US military said in a statement.
Lilwa al-Abdallah, spokeswoman for the offensive in eastern Deir al-Zor province, said on Friday that the coalition would soon re-take Hajin.
Islamic State lost nearly all the territory it once held in Syria last year in separate offensives by the US-backed SDF on the one hand, and the Russian-backed Syrian army on the other.
