Activists: Syrian rebels seize major dam in north

— Syrian rebels Monday captured a hydroelectric dam on the Euphrates River in the country’s north after days of heavy fighting, seizing crates of ammunition from the government troops who were protecting the strategic facility in the latest battlefield success for opposition fighters, activists said.

Also Monday, activists said rebels and pro-government Kurdish gunmen struck a truce to end days of fighting in the northern town of Ras al-Ayn near the border with Turkey that opposition forces entered earlier this month.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said rebel fighters overran regime defenses and captured the Tishrin Dam, near the town of Manbij, before dawn Monday. Observatory direction Rami Abdul-Rahman said the dam supplies several areas of Syria with electricity.

“This is a major blow to the regime,” said Abdul-Rahman by telephone describing the dam as “strategic location” on the Euphrates, which flows from Turkey in the north through Syria and into Iraq.

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