Syrian forces advance on IS-held air base

BEIRUT – Syrian government forces advanced to within 6 miles of the Islamic State-occupied Tabqa air base in the northern part of the country on Sunday, part of a push to try to unseat the extremist group from its de facto capital, Raqqa.

Government forces recaptured the nearby Thawra oil field from IS militants, according to a Syrian journalist Eyad al-Hosain, who is embedded with the army. Activists said Sunday’s assault was accompanied by an aerial campaign on the town of Tabqa, 5 miles north of the air base. The activist group, Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently, which smuggles news out of IS-held territory, reported that fighter jets struck the town with cluster munitions, killing at least 10 civilians.

The Tabqa base, 28 miles from Raqqa, holds strategic and symbolic value in the government campaign on the IS capital. It was the last position held by government forces in Raqqa province before IS militants overran it in August 2014, killing scores of detained soldiers in a massacre they documented on video. Raqqa itself became the militants’ first captive city.

A Syrian opposition coalition, meanwhile, called on Turkey to investigate the deaths of at least eight Syrian refugees, including four children, who were allegedly shot dead by border guards Saturday night while trying to cross the frontier.

A statement by the National Coalition of Syrian Revolution and Opposition Forces accused Turkish border guards of firing at a group of civilians trying to cross from Kherbet al-Jouz in northwestern Syria into Turkey’s Hatay province, killing 11 people.

The coalition, which relies on Turkish political and financial support, said the incident “clashes with the generosity displayed by the Turkish government and brotherly people toward displaced civilians.”

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights put the death toll at eight. The Local Coordination Committees, an activist network, said at least one of those trying to cross was from Jarablus, a northern Syrian town under Islamic State control.

A senior Turkish official said Turkey was unable to independently verify claims regarding the shooting, but said authorities were investigating.

Later Sunday, the Turkish Foreign Ministry issued a statement denying that border guards had fatally shot Syrians trying to cross illegally into Turkey.