Kurdish-led forces backed by international air strikes have advanced to within a few kilometers of a key ISIS stronghold in northeastern Syria, AFP reports.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) were now just five kilometers from the town of Al-Shadadi in Hasakeh province.
The advance comes on the third day of a major offensive by the SDF, an alliance of Kurdish and Arab fighters.
The group has taken a series of villages and also cut two key ISIS supply routes in the region, one from Al-Shadadi to Mosul in neighboring Iraq, and a second from the town to Raqa, the group's de facto Syrian capital.