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Syrian Kurds near IS border stronghold; thousands flee

In this photo taken Saturday from the Turkish side of the border near Syria, in Akcakale, Turkey, a masked gunman, believed to be of IS, gives orders to refugees waiting on the Syrian side of the border to return back to Tal Abyad, Syria. (Associated Press)
Lefteris Pitarakis Associated Press

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 Turkey with the extremist group’s stronghold of Raqqa.

Some 13,000 refugees have already 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 Akcakale border crossing, waiting to cross into Turkey.

A statement by the main Syrian Kurdish fighting force, known as the YPG, said its fighters have encircled the Islamic State-held town of Suluk, a few miles southwest of the strategically important town of Tal Abyad.

It said IS 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 Britain-based 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 IS group.

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 strongest 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 IS group. They have recently pushed into Raqqa province, a stronghold of the Islamic State group. Along the way, they have picked up ammunition, weapons and vehicles left behind by the jihadis.

At the Akcakale border crossing, an Associated Press team witnessed hundreds of Syrians, many of them with suitcases and other belongings, standing on the other side. At one point, a group of armed, masked men – likely IS militants – approached them and ordered them to return to the town. Fearful, many of them turned back, only to return after about 15 minutes.

Capturing Tal Abyad would open a direct line between Kurdish-controlled territories along the border with Turkey, linking up Kurdish-controlled areas in Hasaka province to the west with Kobani to the east.

Such a move is likely to anger Turkey, which sees the YPG as part of the Kurdish PKK movement that has waged an anti-government insurgency in southeastern Turkey.

The Islamic State group still holds about a third of Iraq and Syria, including Iraq’s second-largest city, Mosul. IS fighters continue to battle Iraqi security forces and Shiite militiamen for territory north and east of the capital, Baghdad.