BEIRUT — Kurdish-led forces in Syria are pressing their campaign to drive Islamic State militants from areas in northern Aleppo province, expanding the front line with rival Turkish-backed opposition fighters also operating in the area, activists and rebels said Wednesday.
The Russian military accused a U.S.-led coalition airstrike of killing six civilians in Hassajek, hours before the announcement that the village had been taken from the Islamic State.
While a brief lull is taking hold in the divided city of Aleppo, most of the surrounding province has become Syria's hottest theater of combat.
In the area of Hassajek, three rival groups are battling the Islamic State: the Kurdish-led forces, Turkey-backed Syrian rebels and troops loyal to the government of President Bashar Assad.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the Kurdish-led forces, known as the Syrian Democratic Forces, gained control of Hassajek, killing at least 10 Islamic State militants in fighting there.
One of the fighting units in SDF, the Rebel Army, said in a statement that the clashes with the Islamic State militants continued for the third straight day further to the south. It said its troops also seized weapons and ammunition from IS.
The advance by the Kurdish-led forces has widened the front line between them and rival Syrian rebels, who in recent weeks have pushed into northern Aleppo backed by Turkish tanks and aircraft, driving out the Islamic State from villages and towns it controlled. The Turkey-backed offensive also aims to undercut Kurdish aspirations for a contiguous and independent east-to-west stretch of territory in Syria.
The Russian military's Reconciliation Center in Syria said the strike Hassajek also wounded four people and destroyed two houses.
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