US backed forces storm IS-held Tabqa military airport in northern Syria: Spokesman

Amman: A United States-backed alliance of militias fighting Islamic State have stormed the Tabqa military airport held by militants, a Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) spokesman said on Sunday.

The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) took between "sixty to seventy percent" of the military airport near Tabqa city on the Euphrates River on Sunday but fighting was continuing inside the airport and on its outskirts, spokesman Talal Silo told Reuters.

"We expect to control the airport in the coming hours ... it's an exposed area and this will make it easy for our forces to liberate it," said Silo of the forces currently launching an offensive to seize the city of Tabqa and a major dam nearby.