Kurdish fighters made headway on Sunday into Syria’s northern Raqa province, where the Takfiri militants has set up its de facto capital.

Kurdish fighters made headway on Sunday into Syria's northern Raqa province, where the Takfiri militants has set up its de facto capital.

A spokesman for the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) said YPG forces had taken over "a very large cement factory" in Raqa province.

"The YPG have been trying to take this area for a long time," Newaf Khalil told AFP by phone.

A Britai-based observatory, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, also reported the event, saying that Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) "took over a large cement factory and three villages" northwest of the town of Ain Issa.

Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman said the YPG had fought "fierce clashes" against ISIL terrorists in the past 48 hours and were now in control of a total of villages in the area.

At least six ISIL fighters had been killed in Sunday's clashes, bringing to 20 the death toll for the Takfiri group during the past two days, Abdel Rahman told AFP.

There was no immediate information on Kurdish casualties.
Ain Issa is less than 60 kilometers (35 miles) from the capital of ISIL's self-styled "caliphate" in Raqa city.

It also lies just 45 kilometers south of Tal Abyad, a border town used by ISIL as a gateway for terrorists coming in from Turkey.