Arab fighters desert US-backed Kurdish forces in Syria over 'racial discrimination'

A group of Syrian Arab fighters in a Kurdish-led alliance fighting the Islamic State group have deserted because of "racial discrimination" within the group, local news agency SMART has reported.

Sixty Arab fighters in the Syrian Democratic Forces' elite outfit abandoned their positions amid an ongoing offensive to push IS out of the eastern Syrian province of Deir az-Zour, the opposition outlet said on Monday.

"Sixty members of the al-Shaitat tribe pulled out from the frontline with IS and handed over their weapons to the SDF," a military source told the news agency.

The source said they withdrew because of what they said was "discrimination by the SDF among its ranks between Arabs and Kurds", without explaining further.

The news site said that in February last year another group of SDF fighters deserted the US-backed force.

The Kurdish-dominated SDF announced last week it was launching the final stage of its battle to expel IS its desert holdouts in Deir az-Zour.

Backed by the US-led coalition, the SDF have driven the jihadists out of large parts of the country.

The SDF is an alliance of Kurdish and Arab fighters.

Around 900 civilians and tribesmen from the al-Shaitat were massacred by IS in 2014.