{"id":1257,"date":"2015-06-16T08:42:04","date_gmt":"2015-06-16T08:42:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.raqqa-sl.com\/en\/?p=1257"},"modified":"2015-06-16T08:42:04","modified_gmt":"2015-06-16T08:42:04","slug":"kurdish-forces-seize-key-border-town-from-the-islamic-state","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.raqqa-sl.com\/en\/?p=1257","title":{"rendered":"Kurdish Forces Seize Key Border Town from the Islamic State"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"DISPATCH<\/a>
SANLIURFA, TURKEY – JUNE 15: Free Syrian Army fighters wave their flag as in the northern Syrian town of Tel Abyad as they are pictured from the Turkish border town of Akcakale, in Sanliurfa province, Turkey, June 15, 2015. Members of the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia took positions on the outskirts of the Islamic State stronghold of Tel Abyad. Thousands of Syrians cut through a border fence and crossed over into Turkey on Sunday, fleeing intense fighting in northern Syria between Kurdish fighters and jihadis.According to Turkish security officials 10,000 people to come across from Syria in last two days. (Photo by Gokhan Sahin\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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As Arabs flee northern Syria, claiming ethnic cleansing by Kurds, reports from the Islamic State stronghold in Raqaa say the caliphate is bracing for a siege.4<\/strong><\/p>\n

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AKCAKALE, Turkey \u2014 Syrian Kurdish fighters seized almost all of the Syrian border town of Tal Abyad from the Islamic State on Monday, handing the jihadi group a major defeat and cutting off a key supply line to its de facto capital in Raqqa. The battle, however, has also forced thousands of civilians to flee into Turkey and has exposed old fault lines between Kurds and Arab citizens of northern Syria.<\/p>\n

Redur Xelil, spokesman for the People\u2019s Protection Units (YPG), the Kurdish militia in the area, confirmed that only scattered jihadi fighters were left in the city. Battles still continued in the southern countryside, he said, where an alliance between the YPG and Free Syrian Army-affiliated groups was trying to clear Islamic State fighters from the towns on the road to Raqqa, which lies roughly 60 miles to the south.<\/p>\n

\u201cDaesh had a stronghold in the city, but the YPG broke it and killed many of them,\u201d Xelil said, using the Arabic acronym for the Islamic State. \u201cThose who are still alive and can\u2019t go back to Raqqa escaped to Turkey.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n

The Islamic State is preparing for a possible attack on Raqqa, according toRaqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently<\/a>, a network of activists<\/a> devoted to spreading news about the city.<\/p>\n

The jihadi group is digging trenches<\/a> north of the city, and its preachersannounced<\/a>from mosque loudspeakers that residents should stockpile food and flour in preparation for a coming siege, the activists reported.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The jihadi group isdigging trenches<\/a> north of the city, and its preachersannounced<\/a> from mosque loudspeakers that residents should stockpile food and flour in preparation for a coming siege, the activists reported.<\/p>\n

The anti-Islamic State coalition threw its weight behind the offensive in Tal Abyad, devoting almost its entire air campaign in Syria to supporting the forces in the area. Over the last two weeks, it launched 23 airstrikes near Raqqa and 64 airstrikes in the neighboring areas of Hasakah and Kobani, where Kurdish forces advanced from the east and the west, according to U.S. military statements. By comparison, the coalition only launched 14 airstrikes in all other areas of Syria during this time.<\/p>\n

The capture of Tal Abyad deprives the Islamic State of a key border crossing with Turkey, from which it smuggled<\/a> everything from iPhones to bomb-making fertilizer. But for many of the thousands of refugees who crossed into Turkey to flee the fighting, the story is not so simple.<\/p>\n

Khodr al-Fadel, a 25-year-old farmer from Syria\u2019s northeastern Hasakah governorate, has spent the past month being chased by war. He was forced to flee west from the fighting when the YPG drove the Islamic State from his home, and he kept on moving until he reached Tal Abyad, where he was squeezed between the jihadi fighters and the Kurdish advance to the east and west. He and thousands of his compatriots camped out on the border with Turkey without food or water for days, while imploring the Turkish military to let them in. After three people died, he said, the Turks eventually relented and let some people in.<\/p>\n

It is not the Islamic State, however, but the Kurdish forces who scare Fadel the most.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe saw them burn houses, burn the crops,\u201d he said. \u201cThey just do this to Arabs. The Islamic State didn\u2019t burn our houses or property; they just stole the cars.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fadel\u2019s story coincides with reporting<\/a> that alleges the Kurdish YPG has carried out a campaign of ethnic cleansing in northern Syria with the aim of ridding the area of its Arab population. It is a claim echoed by many of the Arab refugees who crossed into Turkey, as well as by more than a dozen Syrian rebel groups, which released a statement<\/a> condemning the displacement.<\/p>\n

Xelil, the YPG spokesman, vehemently denied the allegations and promised that all civilians would eventually be allowed to return to their homes.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no truth to this, and it\u2019s just a propaganda war paid for by questionable and suspicious groups,\u201d said Xelil. \u201cWe ask the media to come to this area to see the truth, and they will know that it is just lies.\u201d So far, restrictions put in place by the Turkish authorities have made it impossible to gain access to the area.<\/p>\n

U.S. officials may cheer the Islamic State\u2019s latest defeat, but the Kurdish advance could escalate tensions with Turkey, one of America\u2019s most important allies in the region. The YPG is closely linked with the Kurdistan Workers\u2019 Party (PKK), an insurgent group that fought a bloody 30-year war with the Turkish state. Turkish officials, therefore, are deeply hostile to the growth of an autonomous YPG-controlled area along their border.<\/p>\n

\u201cTurkey feels that countering ISIS through military measures, without a political plan [to resolve the entire Syrian conflict], is not helping at all,\u201d said Kadir Ustun, the executive director of the SETA Foundation<\/a> in Washington, D.C. \u201cIt\u2019s simply allowing the various groups to advance their own agenda, and the PYD\u2019s agenda is to secure territory in Syria and forget about the unity of Syria.\u201d<\/p>\n

The PYD, or Democratic Union Party, is the political wing of the Kurdish movement and is closely affiliated with the YPG, which serves as its military arm.<\/p>\n

For the thousands of new Syrian refugees, however, the international political wrangling matters less than where they are going to get their next meal. Fadel and his family of 10 have been camped out within site of the border crossing for days \u2014 not because they are hoping to cross back into Syria, but simply because they have no idea where to go. Food and humanitarian assistance are hard to come by. The Turkish police have at times given them water and chocolate biscuits. The family, along with their 5-year-old child, is sleeping on the trash-strewn ground.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn the inside, we\u2019re afraid of death and bullets,\u201d Fadel said. \u201cYou see what it\u2019s like here: We\u2019re waiting for death, just without the bullets.\u201d<\/p>\n

SOURCE :\u00a0foreignpolicy.com<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As Arabs flee northern Syria, claiming ethnic cleansing by Kurds, reports from the Islamic State stronghold in Raqaa say the caliphate is bracing for a siege.4 AKCAKALE, Turkey — Syrian<\/p>\n

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