DAMASCUS, Nov. 6 (Xinhua) -- At least 30 Islamic State (IS) militants have been killed over the past 24 hours as a result of U.S.-led airstrikes and battles with a Kurdish militia in eastern Syria, a war monitor reported on Tuesday.
The IS militants were killed as the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) and the U.S.-led coalition renewed battles and airstrikes against the last IS-held pocket on the eastern side of the Euphrates River in the eastern countryside of Deir al-Zour province in eastern Syria.
The second wave of attack comes after the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) failed to hold still to positions it had captured in the eastern Euphrates as a result of a recent counter-offensive by IS, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
The Britain-based watchdog group said with the latest death toll, the IS group has lost 553 of its militants since the SDF attack started on Sept. 10.
The Kurdish-led SDF and allied fighters have lost 327 fighters in the battles.
The United States and its allied Kurdish-led forces on the ground aim to clear the eastern Euphrates River of the last IS strongholds as the area in that part of the country is important due to its proximity to the Iraqi border and its rich oil fields.
The Syrian government has repeatedly stressed that it will capture all Syrian areas amid negotiations with the Kurdish groups about the future of the Kurdish-controlled region in northern and northeastern Syria.
