Special to WorldTribune.com

NICOSIA — Islamic State of Iraq and Levant has captured the last military base in a northern Syrian province.

ISIL has seized the Syrian Air Force base at Tabqa in a battle in which more than 500 soldiers and fighters were killed. Tabqa was the last military base in the Raqqa province that fell to ISIL.

“Some of the Syrian regime troops pulled out, and now the Islamic State is in full control of Tabqa,” the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Aug. 24. “This makes Raqqa province the first to fully fall out of government hands.”

Syrian Observatory said more than 500 people were killed in the battle for Tabqa, many of them in a heavy exchange of mortar and rocket fire. The British-based monitoring group said about two-thirds of the casualties were from ISIL.

The regime of President Bashar Assad confirmed the ISIL capture of Tabqa. The official Syrian news agency, Sana, said the military withdrew from the base while maintaining attacks on ISIL.

“They are successfully reassembling after evacuating the airport,” Sana said.

Opposition sources said ISIL has been bolstered by U.S.-origin combat platforms captured from Iraq Army bases in northern Iraq. They cited ISIL’s use of the armored Humvee combat vehicle as well as U.S. artillery batteries.

ISIL was said to have lost a leading operative in the battle for Tabpa. The operative was identified as Abu Mussa, spokesman for ISIL who threatened a takeover of the United States.

“An ISIL leader and press officer both killed in Tabqa Airbase attack in Syria,” the State Department said on Aug. 24.

  Assad confirms ISIL has taken ‘full control’ of key Syrian province, Bashar Assad, ISIL seizes last military base, Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Tabqa