US-backed forces capture Syrian air base

BEIRUT — U.S.-backed Syrian Kurdish forces captured a strategically important air base from Islamic State militants in north Syria on Sunday in the first major victory for the group since the U.S. airlifted the forces behind enemy lines four days ago.

The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces announced they had captured the Tabqa air base, 28 miles west of Raqqa, the Islamic State group’s de facto capital in Syria.

The U.S., which has provided substantial air and ground support to the SDF, ferried hundreds of SDF forces, as well as U.S. military advisers and U.S. artillery, behind Islamic State lines last week.

Shortly later, the group announced it had killed about 200 government soldiers at the base, in a mass killing recorded and distributed on video over social media.

The militants said U.S.-led coalition air strikes had locked up the dam’s gates, causing the water level behind it to rise.