Syria 🇸🇾: SDF says it took Conoco gas field from ISIL

US-backed Syrian fighters captured a major gas field from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group in an eastern province that borders Iraq as they race with government forces to capture the energy-rich region, a senior official with the group said.

Nasser Haj Mansour of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said the Conoco gas field and plant came under full control of the group on Saturday morning after days of fighting with the armed group.

The facility had the largest capacity of any in Syria before the conflict erupted in 2011: 13 million cubic metres of natural gas per day, according to The Syria Report, an economic digest.

Another SDF spokesman, Brigadier General Talal Sillo, said the fighting in the area left 65 ISIL fighters dead while more than 100 gunmen surrendered. Sillo added that ISIL, which is also known as ISIS, had been controlling Conoco since 2014.

The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which tracks the war in Syria, said SDF fighters have not yet taken the field in the province of Deir az Zor, saying fighting is ongoing around it.

The monitoring group said ISIL fighters are launching a counter-offensive to slowdown the push by the SDF.

UCJ, UNILORIN.