Syria Kurds advance after seizing base from Islamic State

BEIRUT: Syrian Kurds and allied rebelsadvancedagainsttheIslamic State group on Tuesday, capturing a strategic town a day after seizing a base from the jihadists near their Raqa bastion.

A spokesman for the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) and a Britain-based monitor said anti-IS forces took Ain Issa after capturing the nearby Brigade 93 base overnight.

“Ain Issa has come under our full control, along with dozens of villages in the surrounding area,” YPG spokesman Redur Khalil told AFP.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitor, said IS had withdrawn from the town and YPG and rebel forces were checking for mines laid by the jihadists.

Ain Issa’s fall comes after IS ceded control of the Brigade 93 base late Monday and the border town of Tal Abyad more than a week ago.

Ain Issa and Brigade 93 are around 55 kilometres north of Raqa, de facto capital of IS’s selfdeclared Islamic “caliphate” in Syria and Iraq.

They both lie on a main highway between Kurdish-held territory in Aleppo province to the west and Hasakeh province to the east.

The same route links territory held by IS in Aleppo and Hasakeh provinces.

“It’s also a defence line for Raqa,” said Mutlu Civiroglu, a Kurdish affairs analyst.

“Considering that Raqa is a sort of capital of the ‘caliphate’, it creates a lot of pressure on IS.”

The YPG-rebel advance has been backed by air power from the US-led coalition fighting IS, with the Observatory saying at least 26 jihadists were killed in international strikes in and around Ain Issa on Monday. — AFP