BBC Online :
US-backed Syrian fighters have paused their offensive near the Tabqa dam so engineers can do any work necessary to ensure it continues to function.
The Syrian Democratic Forces alliance is battling Islamic State militants for control of the structure, which is on the River Euphrates west of Raqqa.
On Sunday, the US-led coalition against IS denied claims by the group that air strikes had damaged the dam.
However, there have been reports that the dam has been put out of service.
The UN has warned that if the dam were to collapse, it could lead to flooding on a “massive scale” across Raqqa province and as far downstream as Deir al-Zour with “catastrophic humanitarian consequences”.
Stretching 4.5km (2.8 miles) across the eastern end of Lake Assad, the dam is Syria’s largest.
IS captured the dam in 2014, giving it control of a vital reservoir and a hydroelectric power station that supplies large parts of the country.
The coalition also says the dam has been used by hundreds of IS foreign fighters as a headquarters, as a prison for high-profile hostages, as a training location and to plot attacks outside Syria.
The offensive on the dam is part of a wider SDF offensive aimed at also driving IS militants from the nearby town of Tabqa and its airbase, which fell on Sunday.
Is the dam at imminent risk of collapse?
On Sunday, IS said coalition air strikes had locked the dam’s gates, causing water levels to rise dangerously behind the structure. The dam might collapse “at any moment”, it warned.
Civilians living downstream in Raqqa – the de facto capital of the “caliphate” proclaimed by IS in June 2014 – were told to evacuate and many began leaving their homes, according to the activist group Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently.
Later, the jihadist group reportedly sent cars around Raqqa with loudspeakers, telling people the dam was intact and they had no need to evacuate. The coalition meanwhile insisted the dam had not been targeted by air strikes and had not been structurally damaged “to our knowledge”.
US-backed Syrian fighters have paused their offensive near the Tabqa dam so engineers can do any work necessary to ensure it continues to function.
The Syrian Democratic Forces alliance is battling Islamic State militants for control of the structure, which is on the River Euphrates west of Raqqa.
On Sunday, the US-led coalition against IS denied claims by the group that air strikes had damaged the dam.
However, there have been reports that the dam has been put out of service.
The UN has warned that if the dam were to collapse, it could lead to flooding on a “massive scale” across Raqqa province and as far downstream as Deir al-Zour with “catastrophic humanitarian consequences”.
Stretching 4.5km (2.8 miles) across the eastern end of Lake Assad, the dam is Syria’s largest.
IS captured the dam in 2014, giving it control of a vital reservoir and a hydroelectric power station that supplies large parts of the country.
The coalition also says the dam has been used by hundreds of IS foreign fighters as a headquarters, as a prison for high-profile hostages, as a training location and to plot attacks outside Syria.
The offensive on the dam is part of a wider SDF offensive aimed at also driving IS militants from the nearby town of Tabqa and its airbase, which fell on Sunday.
Is the dam at imminent risk of collapse?
On Sunday, IS said coalition air strikes had locked the dam’s gates, causing water levels to rise dangerously behind the structure. The dam might collapse “at any moment”, it warned.
Civilians living downstream in Raqqa – the de facto capital of the “caliphate” proclaimed by IS in June 2014 – were told to evacuate and many began leaving their homes, according to the activist group Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently.
Later, the jihadist group reportedly sent cars around Raqqa with loudspeakers, telling people the dam was intact and they had no need to evacuate. The coalition meanwhile insisted the dam had not been targeted by air strikes and had not been structurally damaged “to our knowledge”.
