| New York Times | - |
ISTANBUL - A coalition of Kurdish militias and Arab rebels stormed into a strategic Syrian
town on the Turkey border on Monday, seizing most of it from Islamic
State fighters who had long used the area to smuggle supplies and
fighters into their self ...
Kurds cut road to IS 'capital' in battle for Syria border
ISTANBUL- A coalition of Kurdish militias and Arab rebels stormed into a strategic Syrian town on the Turkey
border on Monday, seizing most of it from Islamic State fighters who
had long used the area to smuggle supplies and fighters into their
self-declared caliphate, according to Kurdish militia leaders and
activists.
The
complete loss of the town, Tal Abyad, would deal a major blow to the
jihadists by cutting the primary lifeline to the Syrian city of Raqqa,
which the Islamic State has ruled for more than a year and has tried to
turn into a model of strict Islamic governance.
The
advance was a boost to opposition fighters who have watched in dismay
as the Islamic State has grown, taking over resources and waging deadly
battles against their communities. Control of Tal Abyad also would help
create a contiguous slice of Kurdish-held territory adjoining Turkey.
“This
is a very important victory for the Kurds because it will nourish the
area economically,” said Saleh Muslim, a Kurdish activist, shouting on
the phone from the area near the battle to make himself heard over the
chants of celebrating militiamen. “Fuel and other goods will be
available for the areas that were besieged before.”
Graphic
ISIS Loses Key Town at Syrian Border
Tal Abyad, a Syrian town on the border with Turkey, is under siege.
The
opposition’s attack, helped from heavy airstrikes by the United
States-led military coalition that is bombing the Islamic State, was
surprisingly swift, especially since recent victories by the jihadists
in Iraq and Syria had suggested that months of airstrikes had done little to blunt the Islamic State’s military prowess.
But
on Monday, The Associated Press quoted Redur Khalil, a Kurdish militia
spokesman, as saying that his group had entered Tal Abyad from the east
and was advancing westward against small pockets of resistance from the
Islamic State.
By Monday evening, activists were posting videos online of men running through the town with Syrian opposition flags and distributing images of celebrating fighters
inside the border crossing. It was not immediately clear how many of
the jihadists who had ruled the town remained, had been killed or had
fled elsewhere as the opposition approached. Images said to show Islamic State fighters surrendering to Turkish soldiers circulated on social media.
The
airstrikes, combined with ground battles between advancing opposition
fighters and the jihadists, had terrified civilians in recent days, and
thousands of them streamed across the border into Turkey, ripping holes in the border fence to make way for women and children.
The
fighting near Tal Abyad illustrated the complexity of the local and
international alliances that have evolved during more than four years of
war in Syria.
Driving
the battle on the ground were Kurdish militias that have used the
weakening of the Syrian state to carve out greater autonomy for
themselves in their areas along the Turkish border. Their seizure of Tal
Abyad will further advance that cause by connecting Kurdish territories
previously separated by the jihadists.
They
were joined by Arab rebel groups that formed with the goal of ousting
President Bashar al-Assad of Syria but have found themselves also
fighting the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, which has exploited the chaos in Iraq and Syria to seize territory for the creation of its own state.
Obama’s Evolution on ISIS
The
United States-led military coalition appeared to have created the
opportunity for the advance of the opposition forces by repeatedly
bombing Islamic State targets in the area in recent days.
But
the new battle on the Turkish border once again laid bare the divisions
between Turkey’s leadership and the coalition. As displaced Syrians
massed near the border over the weekend, journalists captured images of armed Islamic State fighters moving among them unmolested, often within eyeshot of Turkish soldiers.
Turkey’s
president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has accused the coalition of bombing
Turkmens and Arabs, empowering Kurdish groups that Turkey considers
terrorists near its border.
The
airstrikes “could lead to the creation of a structure that threatens
our borders,” Mr. Erdogan said, according to Agence France-Presse.
“Everyone needs to take into account our sensitivities on this issue.”
The
main Kurdish militia fighting in the area, known as the Democratic
Union Party, or P.Y.D., is an offshoot of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party,
or P.K.K., which has waged a 30-year insurgency against the Turkish
state.
Mr.
Erdogan repeatedly raised concerns about Kurdish advances on Tal Abyad
in comments carried by Turkish media, saying that Kurdish self-rule near
the Turkish border was a security threat.
Pro-government
media in Turkey reported that the refugee influx was caused by
coalition airstrikes and that some had caused civilian casualties.
Graphic
How ISIS Expands
The Islamic State aims to build a broad colonial empire across many countries.
The American Embassy in Ankara, the Turkish capital, responded on Monday, saying on Twitter, “contrary to insinuations from some in the media, the coalition works hard to ensure civilians are not hit in airstrikes.”
The embassy also said, in another Twitter message, that “civilian outflows from Tal al-Abyad are the result of people fleeing fighting brought about by #ISIL.”
The tensions were similar to those during an Islamic State offensive last fall on the Syrian Kurdish town of Kobani,
also on the Turkish border. That attack caused a humanitarian crisis,
and the coalition carried out some of the most intense airstrikes of its
entire campaign against the Islamic State, reportedly killing more than
1,000 Islamic State fighters before the jihadists abandoned the
assault.
Turkey,
meanwhile, positioned tanks on the border but did not intervene,
appearing more concerned with the prospect of an autonomous Kurdish
enclave on its border than with the Islamic State’s taking the town.
Turkey,
which already hosts nearly two million Syrian refugees, has struggled
to confront the recent flood of civilians fleeing the fighting near Tal
Abyad. The border crossing has been closed periodically, and clusters of
desperate refugees have gathered near the crossing, at one point
breaking a hole in the border fence.
At times, the Turkish soldiers at the border have fired water cannons and warning shots to control the refugee crowds.
The
Turks opened the gate on Sunday, and nearly 3,000 Syrians have since
crossed, according to the semiofficial Anadolu Agency. Before Sunday, at
least 15,000 Syrians fleeing the fighting in the area had entered
Turkey over the last week, according to Turkish news outlets.
Throughout the war in Syria, Turkey has faced allegations that lax controls along its long border with Syria abetted the rise of extremist groups like the Nusra Front and the Islamic State.
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