Syrian Kurd forces withdraw from around 60 villages: monitor

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syrian Kurdish forces have withdrawn from around 60 villages in the face of an advance by Islamic State militants in northern Syria, a monitoring group said on Friday. The Islamic State militants were using heavy weapons including artillery and tanks, said Rami Abdulrahman, director of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. A Kurdish official contacted by Reuters said he did not know how many villages had fallen to Islamic State militants but that it had not been that many. He added that a "large number" of villages had turned into war zones and that about 100 villages had been evacuated of civilians for their protection. (Reporting by Alexander Dziadosz; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)