Syrian Kurdish-led forces said they had captured a town at the Turkish border from Islamic State on Monday, driving it away from the frontier in an advance backed by U.S.-led air strikes that has thrust deep into the jihadists' Syria stronghold, Reuters said.
The capture of Tel Abyad by the Kurdish YPG and smaller Syrian rebel groups means the Syrian Kurds effectively control some 400 km (250 miles) of the Syrian-Turkish border that has been a conduit for foreign fighters joining Islamic State.
While the advance has brought the well-organized YPG deep into Islamic State's stronghold of Raqqa province, it has also concerned Turkey, which is worried the expansion of Kurdish sway risks inflaming separatist sentiment among its Kurdish minority.
The YPG-led forces also seized control of the road linking Tel Abyad to the Islamic State's de facto capital of Raqqa city, about 50 miles (80 km) to the south, cutting off a supply route which Islamic State had used to send reinforcements.
Tel Abyad, on the border with Turkey, has been a main conduit for Islamic State to smuggle weapons and oil.
The YPG-led forces had advanced into Raqqa after making big gains against Islamic State in neighboring Hasaka province since early May, also with the help of the U.S.-led alliance.
While Islamic State was being driven back in Hasaka, it was advancing elsewhere in Syria against government forces, notably in Palmyra, which the jihadists seized from the government in mid-May.
The fighting near the border has forced more than 18,000 people to cross into Turkey from Syria, aid workers say. A further 5,000 are believed to have crossed on Monday, according to a Reuters photographer at the scene.
Soldiers directed the people, many of whom were elderly, women and children, through a passage in a barbed wire fence to a border facility, he said.
In a statement published on Sunday the YPG urged civilians not to leave Syria, saying it was guaranteeing "their security and all of their humanitarian needs".
Meanwhile, 15 Syrian rebel groups, including Ahrar al-Sham and al-Shamiya Front, have denounced the ethnic and sectarian cleansing against Arab families in Tel Abyad and areas under Kurdish militias control.
The statement of key rebel groups said the forced displacement of Arabs falls under the partition scheme led by PKK and other regional parties.
Syria's four-year-old war has killed more than 220,000 people and forced millions out of their homes. (With Reuters)
The capture of Tel Abyad by the Kurdish YPG and smaller Syrian rebel groups means the Syrian Kurds effectively control some 400 km (250 miles) of the Syrian-Turkish border that has been a conduit for foreign fighters joining Islamic State.
While the advance has brought the well-organized YPG deep into Islamic State's stronghold of Raqqa province, it has also concerned Turkey, which is worried the expansion of Kurdish sway risks inflaming separatist sentiment among its Kurdish minority.
The YPG-led forces also seized control of the road linking Tel Abyad to the Islamic State's de facto capital of Raqqa city, about 50 miles (80 km) to the south, cutting off a supply route which Islamic State had used to send reinforcements.
Tel Abyad, on the border with Turkey, has been a main conduit for Islamic State to smuggle weapons and oil.
The YPG-led forces had advanced into Raqqa after making big gains against Islamic State in neighboring Hasaka province since early May, also with the help of the U.S.-led alliance.
While Islamic State was being driven back in Hasaka, it was advancing elsewhere in Syria against government forces, notably in Palmyra, which the jihadists seized from the government in mid-May.
The fighting near the border has forced more than 18,000 people to cross into Turkey from Syria, aid workers say. A further 5,000 are believed to have crossed on Monday, according to a Reuters photographer at the scene.
Soldiers directed the people, many of whom were elderly, women and children, through a passage in a barbed wire fence to a border facility, he said.
In a statement published on Sunday the YPG urged civilians not to leave Syria, saying it was guaranteeing "their security and all of their humanitarian needs".
Meanwhile, 15 Syrian rebel groups, including Ahrar al-Sham and al-Shamiya Front, have denounced the ethnic and sectarian cleansing against Arab families in Tel Abyad and areas under Kurdish militias control.
The statement of key rebel groups said the forced displacement of Arabs falls under the partition scheme led by PKK and other regional parties.
Syria's four-year-old war has killed more than 220,000 people and forced millions out of their homes. (With Reuters)
Zaman Al Wasl
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