Syrian Kurds advance against strategic town
AKCAKALE, Turkey — Hundreds of Syrian refugees poured into a Turkish-Syrian border crossing Saturday, fleeing intense fighting as Syrian Kurds closed in on an Islamic State-held town — the only passageway linking the extremist group’s stronghold of Raqqa with Turkey.
Some 13,000 refugees already have crossed into Turkey in the last 10 days, according to the Turkish Foreign Ministry. Hundreds more could be seen Saturday on the Syrian side of the border at Akcakale, waiting to cross into Turkey.
A statement by the main Syrian Kurdish fighting force, known as the YPG, said its fighters encircled the Islamic State-held town of Suluk, a few miles southwest of the strategically important town of Tal Abyad.
It said the militants have “lost control” over Suluk and Kurdish forces were advancing toward Tal Abyad. It also said the road linking Tal Abyad with Raqqa was under YPG control. The report could not be immediately confirmed. The Britainbased Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the Kurds were less than 6 miles away from Tal Abyad.
The loss of Tal Abyad would be a major blow to the Islamic State. The border town is a major avenue for commerce for the extremist group — through which it smuggles in foreign fighters and sells black-market oil. The city is also a key link between Turkey and the northern Syrian city of Raqqa, the de-facto capital of the Islamic State group’s self-declared caliphate.
In Syria, a country now split mostly between Islamic militants and forces loyal to President Bashar Assad, the U.S. has found a reliable partner in the country’s Kurdish militia, the YPG. They are moderate, mostly secular fighters, driven by revolutionary fervor and deep conviction in their cause.
Since the beginning of May, they have wrested back more than 200 Kurdish and Christian towns in northeastern Syria, as well as strategic mountains seized earlier by the Islamic State group. They have recently pushed into Raqqa province, a stronghold of the Islamic State. Along the way, they have picked up ammunition, weapons and vehicles left behind by the jihadis.
The Islamic State still holds about a third of Iraq and Syria, including Iraq’s second-largest city, Mosul. Islamic State fighters continue to battle Iraqi security forces and Shiite militiamen for territory north and east of the capital, Baghdad.