U.S.: Assad Should Have No Role in Long-term Solution to Syria Conflict

Syrian troops and militia fought fierce battles with Islamic State fighters in Syria's northeast overnight.

A damaged picture of Syrian president Bashar Al-Assad is seen on a wall in Idlib city.
A damaged picture of Syrian president Bashar Al-Assad is seen on a wall in Idlib city, after rebel fighters took control of the area March 28, 2015.Reuters

U.S. President Barack Obama's envoy charged with building the coalition against Islamic State said on Wednesday that Syria's President Bashar Assad should have no role in any long-term solution to Syria's conflict.

Retired Marine General John Allen added in remarks to a conference in Qatar that there was a "very energetic" discussion among a number of countries about how to bring about a political transition in Damascus, but that such a solution would not include Assad, who has been fighting Islamist and other rebels since 2011.

Syrian troops and militia fought fierce battles with Islamic State fighters in Syria's northeast overnight, war monitors and state media said, as both sides vie for control of territory near the Iraqi frontier.

Some of the biggest battles took place near a prison just south of Hasaka city after Islamic State set off a bomb close by, the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

State television also reported the clashes, saying they were fought around the prison under construction. Islamic State fighters had been trying to break into the unfinished building after setting off five car bombs, it said in a newsflash.

The surrounding Hasaka province, the country's northeastern triangle bordering on Turkey and Iraq, is a strategic area because it links up Islamic State-held land in Syria and Iraq.Steady advances by insurgents on key fronts in Syria have increased military pressure on Assad, whose government increasingly sees western areas near the capital and the coast as its priority in the four-year-old conflict.

The Lebanese group Hezbollah said it had seized ground from insurgents near the Lebanon-Syria border, widening its joint offensive with the Syrian army to try to clear the area of militant groups including al-Qaida's Syrian wing.

The Iran-backed group, a crucial Assad ally, said in a statement it had seized three hilltops in the mountainous area east of the Lebanese town of Arsal, which was attacked last August by the al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front and Islamic State.Syria's Hasaka province is mainly populated by Syrian Kurds, whose YPG forces have pushed back the al-Qaida offshoot in other areas across Syria's north with the help of U.S.-led airstrikes.

Battles were also taking place between Islamic State and Kurdish forces close to Ras al-Ayn, a town on the border with Turkey northwest of Hasaka city, the Observatory said.The YPG says it does not coordinate its operations with the Syrian military.

The United States and its allies have launched 10 air strikes against Islamic State targets in Iraq and five in Syria since Monday morning, the U.S. military said on Tuesday.

The five strikes in Syria were concentrated near Hasaka and Kobani further to west, and hit tactical units, fighting positions, a command and control facility and a weapons cache, it said.

The Observatory, which collects its information from a network of sources on the ground, said around 30 fighters from the Syrian military and allied militia had been killed in five days of battles with Islamic State in Hasaka province.