THU 28 - 3 - 2024
 
Date: Jun 14, 2015
Source: The Daily Star
Syrian Kurds advance towards ISIS-held town
Agence France Presse
BEIRUT: The Syrian Kurdish YPG militia said it began an advance towards an ISIS-held town at the Turkish border on Saturday, thrusting deeper into the jihadis' stronghold of Raqqa province with the backing of U.S.-led airstrikes.

Redur Xelil, the YPG spokesman, told Reuters the YPG and smaller Syrian Arab rebel groups fighting alongside it had begun the move towards Tel Abyad after encircling the ISIS-held town of Suluk 20 km (12 miles) to the southeast.

The advance raises the prospect of a big battle at the Turkish border between the well-organized YPG militia and ISIS Tel Abyad is important to ISIS as the nearest border town to its de facto capital of Raqqa city.

Turkey says thousands of people have already fled across its border to escape fighting between the YPG and ISIS near Tel Abyad.

The YPG has made a determined push into Raqqa province from neighbouring Hassakeh where, with the help of the U.S.-led alliance, it has driven ISIS from wide areas of territory since early May.

"The move towards Tel Abyad from the east began today after the completion of the Suluk blockade," Xelil said. "Many of the Daesh militants have fled [Suluk], apart from a group of suicide attackers inside the town and the booby traps, so we are very cautious about entering the town center," he added via Skype.

Daesh is an Arabic name for ISIS.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based organization that tracks the war, said the YPG fighters were now half-way between Suluk and Tel Abyad.

With the help of U.S.-led airstrikes, the YPG fended off an ISIS attack on the border town of Kobani, or Ayn al-Arab, in January. Since then, the YPG has emerged as the most significant partner on the ground in Syria for the U.S.-led alliance that is trying to roll back ISIS.

Washington has ruled out the idea of partnering with President Bashar Assad, who last month lost the city of Palmyra in central Syria to ISIS - the first time the jihadis seized a city directly from government control.

For the YPG, dislodging ISIS from Tel Abyad would help them to link up Kurdish-controlled areas of Syria in Hassakeh province and Kobani.

The expansion of Kurdish influence in Syria near the border with Turkey is a concern for Ankara, which has long been worried about separatism among its own Kurdish population.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan Thursday accused the West of bombing Arabs and Turkmens in Syria while supporting Kurdish "terrorist" groups he said were filling the void left behind.

Xelil said: "The help of the alliance forces has been very effective and accurate in its target selection."

The YPG is affiliated to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) which has fought a decades-long insurgency against the Turkish state. The PKK is considered a terrorist group by Ankara, the United States and European Union.

Meanwhile, A Syrian rebel alliance has pushed ISIS jihadis further away from one of its key supply routes from neighboring Turkey, activists said Saturday.

The Islamist rebels ousted ISIS from the village of Al-Bal, which it captured Tuesday, threatening the Bab al-Salama border crossing, just 10 kilometers (six miles) away, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The village's recapture late on Friday came after heavy fighting which killed 14 rebels and 15 ISIS jihadis, Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman said.

Further south, the two sides battled for the town of Marea, which lies on the road between the crossing and the rebel-held eastern sector of the main northern city of Aleppo.

"The ultimate goal for ISIS is to cut off this crossing," said Abdel Rahman.

Activists said the rebels were fighting to defend Marea, while simultaneously launching their own attacks on ISIS positions in the area.

"ISIS is trying to surround the town by occupying the villages all around it," said Mamun Abu Omar, head of a local pro-rebel press agency.

The rebel alliance is fighting both ISIS and government forces in Aleppo province, which is one of the most complex battlegrounds of Syria's multi-front civil war.

In some areas, it is supported by fighters of ISIS' jihadi rival, Al-Qaeda affiliate Al-Nusra Front.


 
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