Beirut, Oct 27 (PTI/AFP): The Islamic State group has killed 41 US-backed fighters in Syria who are battling to oust the jihadists from their eastern holdout of Hajin on the Iraqi border, a war monitor said Saturday.
IS late Friday dispatched suicide bombers as part of a counter-attack against the Syrian Democratic Forces, said the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human rights.
The SDF fighters, who are backed by US-led coalition air strikes, were killed overnight, the Observatory said.
In a statement on the Telegram messaging app, IS said it had attacked the village of Sousa late Friday and detonated a car bomb near the village of Al-Baghuza further south, down the Euphrates river.
The SDF last month launched an offensive against the jihadists in the Hajin pocket on the eastern banks of the Euphrates, in Deir Ezzor province.
IS has staged a bloody fightback.
Since September 10, 270 SDF fighters and 496 IS jihadists have been killed in the offensive, the Observatory says.
