BEIRUT—A top Syrian Kurdish commander died Sunday, several days after sustaining injuries during a U.S.-backed campaign to unseat the Islamic State (ISIS) from its de facto Syrian capital, Raqqa.
Abu Layla, who commanded a brigade inside the predominantly-Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces, was hit by ISIS sniper fire on the outskirts of Manbij, an Islamic State group stronghold that controls the supply route between the Turkish border and Raqqa, the Kurdish website Rudaw said. He was evacuated by U.S. forces to a hospital in the Iraqi Kurdish city of Sulaymaniyah, where he died.
The commander fought against ISIS militants in Kobani in early 2015, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a monitoring group. Those battles, the first major setback to ISIS advance in northern Syria, were seen as instrumental to securing U.S. support for Kurdish forces in the country’s multi-layered conflict.
