The Latest: Kurdish group says it has French IS fighter

BEIRUT – The Latest on Syria developments (all times local):

6:45 p.m.

A U.S.-backed Syrian Kurdish group says it has detained a French Islamic State group fighter linked to terror attacks in Paris and Nice in 2015 and 2016.

The Syrian Democratic Forces say they captured Adrien Lionel Kiyali on Saturday in a region in north Syria that was recaptured in 2017 from IS control.

In a statement Thursday, the SDF said Kiyali was hiding in the region around Raqqa, the former Syria capital of the IS group, and waiting to cross into Turkey and then travel on to Europe. The group says Kiyali crossed into Syria in 2015.

French media reported his name as Adrien Guihal.

In recordings for the Islamic State group, Guihal claimed responsibility for the July 2016 truck attack in Nice as well as the double killings of two French police officials at their home in Magnanville.

The newspaper Liberation reports that Guihal is a convert to Islam who studied Arabic in Egypt and was close to Fabien Clain, another French Islamic State member who himself claimed responsibility for the November 2015 attacks in Paris.

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10:45 a.m.

A Syria war-monitoring group says at least 12 pro-government fighters were killed in airstrikes the previous night in the country's east.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says none of the fatalities were Syrian nationals but foreign fighters.

Syria's government forces have relied on support from the Lebanese militant Hezbollah group and also regional militias organized by Iran to wage war on rebels and Islamic State militants.

In Damascus, government media reported early on Thursday that international coalition aircraft struck Syrian army positions near the front lines with IS in eastern Syria.

The Observatory says the U.S.-led coalition was likely behind the strikes but the Pentagon said it had "no information to substantiate those reports."