BEIRUT -- Islamic State militants on Wednesday pushed back U.S.-trained Syrian rebels from the outskirts of a town on the Iraqi border, a setback to a budding offensive that aims to sever the militants' transit link between the two countries, a rebel spokesman said.
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The Islamic State-linked Aamaq news agency said militants repelled the New Syrian Army from an air base that the rebels had briefly captured earlier in the day. The Islamic State said it seized 15 hostages and was still advancing against the rebels.
Earlier Wednesday, the rebels entered the Hamdan air base -- northwest of the border town of Boukamal -- after intense clashes, rebel spokesman Mozahem al-Saloum said.
He said fighters dropped from coalition helicopters on Boukamal's southern edge, helping the rebels advance. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which relies on activists inside the country, confirmed the account.
The Observatory's chief, Rami Abdurrahman, said fighters also were dropped to the north, enabling the takeover of the base. The rebels were heavily backed by U.S.-led coalition airstrikes and were coordinating their fight with Iraqi tribesmen and forces on the other side of the border, al-Saloum said.
Col. Chris Garver, a spokesman for the coalition, said the U.S. has provided advice and assistance to the New Syrian Army as well as airstrikes in both Syria and Iraq in support of the operation.
He said there was a "very tough fight" around Boukamal and that the New Syrian Army suffered a "setback." He denied that fighters had been taken in by helicopter.
The Observatory said several hundred rebels from different factions were involved in the offensive, which began Tuesday. It said Islamic State fighters have dug trenches and planted mines south of the town.
Al-Saloum acknowledged that the New Syrian Army forces were unable to keep the base and other outposts to the south, near the Qaim border crossing with Iraq, but he said the offensive would continue.
The Islamic State seized much of the Iraq-Syria border in 2014, along with large areas in both countries, declaring an Islamic caliphate. But the militants in recent weeks have lost ground, both in Iraq and in Syria.
The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces has besieged Manbij, an Islamic State stronghold in northern Syria, while Iraqi forces have recaptured Fallujah, in Iraq's western Anbar province.
Manbij is surrounded on all sides by the Syrian Democratic Forces, in an operation supported by U.S. special operations forces and dozens of airstrikes. But despite gains around the city, forces have struggled for weeks to capture a cluster of grain silos seen as important to the coalition strategy.
Positioned a little more than a mile from the center of Manbij, the grain silos provide an unfettered view of the city. For the U.S.-backed Syrian forces, this means that American advisers would have an observation tower for calling in airstrikes. The Islamic State knows this and has fought doggedly to keep them.
Initial reports on social media indicate that the Syrian Democratic Forces began fighting around the grain silos in early June, soon after the campaign to capture Manbij began. As the U.S.-backed forces began to encircle the rest of the city, the Islamic State refused to budge from the silos.
Footage that appeared Monday on YouTube appears to show an airstrike hitting the silos, but it is unclear how recently the video was shot. The Syrian Democratic Forces has repeatedly said the silos are under its control, but social media reports have contradicted those claims or have said that the advancing forces only partially control the compound.
Information for this article was contributed by Sarah El Deeb and Robert Burns of The Associated Press and Thomas Gibbons-Neff of The Washington Post.
A Section on 06/30/2016