Islamic state militants seized a vital government air base in northeastern Syria on Sunday, dislodging forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad from their last stronghold in the northeastern Raqqa province, state television reported. Tabqa air base was the Syrian regime's last stronghold in the area.
After battles began last week, the Tabqa air base was stormed by the al-Qaeda breakaway group, which is also fighting government forces in Iraq, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors the daily developments of civil war and violence in the country. The government was then forced to move its aircraft to other bases, it said.
Photos showed men riding on motorcycles, waving ISIS' black flag and celebrating in nearby ISIS-controlled Raqqa, Bloomberg reported. "It will facilitate attacks towards the north by the south Turkish borders," according to Laith Alkhouri, a senior analyst at New York-based intelligence consulting firm Flashpoint Global Partners. "The capture will likely allow ISIS to launch operations against rival rebel groups also fighting to oust the government of President Bashar Assad."
Further cementing the Islamic State's hold inside its self-declared state, Raqqa has become the first province to be fully outside Assad's control after the capture of the air base. It has also allowed the terrorist organization to focus on the neighboring Aleppo province, whose airport is vital to the group's economic survival as it seeks to "import what it needs."
The seizure "means the group can keep moving forward to Aleppo, which is a strategic goal as ISIS drives relentlessly towards the coastline," Theodore Karasik, director of research at the Institute for Near East and Gulf Military Analysis in Dubai, said in a phone interview.
It was after a week of heavy fighting that the base was eventually captured, according to an anti-ISIS rebel in the area who spoke to NBC News on the condition of anonymity. "Taking over the military airport was one of ISIS aims for a long time because of the heavy shelling and bombing from the airport toward Raqqa," he said.
In addition to battling the Assad regime and rampaging through neighboring Iraq, ISIS has been fighting other anti-Assad fighters in Syria.
Meanwhile, at least 346 ISIS fighters were killed and more than 170 government troops died since Tuesday in the battle over Tabqa, making it one of the deadliest confrontations between the two groups since the start of Syria's war, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
