BEIRUT – Kurdish forces backed by the Free Syrian Army and coalition airstrikes have begun to press into ISIS’s stronghold of Tel Abyad near the Turkish border in a bid to link two de-facto autonomous Kurdish cantons.
On Sunday, the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) announced that it was “completing [the] final stages of a historic resistance” with an offensive to seize the town of Tel Abyad, after the nearby town of Solouk fell to Kurdish forces the day before.
The YPG said that its troops from the Kobane canton, which lies to the west of ISIS’ last stronghold along the Turkish border, had advanced to the outskirts of Tel Abyad, while at the same time troops from the Kurds’ Cezire canton in Hasakeh had also closed in on the town from the east.
“Throughout the operations conducted in the past 24 hours a large number of terrorist fighters were killed and wounded,” the statement said.
Meanwhile, a local activist told Asharq Alawsat that “the situation in Tel Abyad is coming to an end.”
“[Kurdish fighters] are advancing from the west and the east, while the line is still open to the south towards Raqqa,” Abu Mohammed al-Raqqawi of the Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently activist group said.
The seizure of Tel Abyad would represent a serious blow to ISIS, cutting off lines of communication and supply southward to the group’s de-facto capital of Raqqa.
The Kurds’ ambitious military campaign in northern Syria comes less than a year after the minority community was on the ropes in Kobane. In October 2014, ISIS began a siege of the border town and looked poised to seize it.
However, supported by coalition strikes, the YPG managed to turn back the militant group, and has since notched success after success against ISIS not only in the Kobane area, but also in Syria’s northeastern Hasakeh province.
With their new advances in Tel Abyad, the Kurds are now poised to link their two areas of control in northern Syria, which would be a massive strategic boon.
A Kurdish official said in late May that “there is an agreement between the joint forces [Kurdish and FSA] fighting in Kobane and the coalition that support will continue until the Kobane-Cezire road is opened.”
Kurdish fighters have been given a “greenlight from the coalition in that respect,” Lebanese daily Al-Akhbar quoted Kurdish Front Brigade spokesperson Ahmad Hasso as saying.
Battlefield balance
Heavy battles continued to rage as the Kurds backed by FSA fighters and coalition airstrikes pressed their bid to enter Tel Abyad.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported Monday that the anti-ISIS forces had seized suburbs of the town.
“YPG backed by [FSA] fighters and coalition air strikes have managed to advance and seize the Mashour Tahtani area that lies in the southeastern outskirts of Tel Abyad,” the monitoring NGO reported.
The group added that clashes were also still raging in the eastern Mashour Fowqani quarter, while ISIS had detonated a vehicle to outside of the town the south, killing four YPG fighters.
Earlier on Monday, the Observatory said that clashes pitting “YPG fighters supported by [rebel] factions and international coalition planes [against] ISIS” had continued “to the southeast and southwest of Tel Abyad.”
“Yesterday, the group blew up the Al-Jallab and Shariyaan Bridges, southeast and southwest of the city, in a bid to prevent the YPG and rebel fighters from advancing.”
On Sunday, the Observatory reported that ISIS had withdrawn from the village of Solouk to the north of Raqqa after a 48 hour siege enforced by the YPG with support from rebel fighters and coalition warplanes.
“In doing so, the YPG has expanded its areas of control from the territory east of the town of Tel Tamr to the territory southwest of Ras al-Ayn, reaching a distance of five kilometers southwest of Tel Abyad,” the monitoring group reported.
The Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently activist told Asharq Alawsat that ISIS fighters were “withdrawing from many of their positions inside [Tel Abyad], while Kurdish forces and the FSA forces fighting alongside them against the group advance.”
Raqqawi said that this has been accompanied by “intensification of coalition […] air raids on those areas.”
“US Apache helicopters are hovering in the sky [above] the eastern area of the town, which means that coalition field support […] has entered battle for the first time since last September.”
“The heavy air raids have forced ISIS to fall back and prevented it from resisting.”
Confusing ISIS
A field commander in the YPG’s female fighting force explained to the Kurdish ANHA news agency that the Kurds had taken everyone by surprise with their Tel Abyad campaign.
All the observers expected us to try and liberate the village of Solouk first and then head for Tel Abyad, but we followed a different tactic,” YPJ commander Cicek Khamkin told ANHA.
“We headed towards Tel Abyad immediately, which confused the mercenaries,” she said in reference to ISIS.
“Our tactics are stronger and more advanced than the mercenaries’ tactics, and that is how we beat their tactics.”
“Now we are inside the limits of Tel Abyad. Our forces in the Cezire and Kobane cantons aim to lay siege to the area.”
“From now on we will not allow the mercenaries to reorganize their ranks.”
Refugee crisis
As fighting continues to rage around Tell Abyad, thousands of civilians have massed along the Turkish border seeking to flee the violence.
“Local authorities agreed on June 14 to allow refugees to cross the border into Turkey as clashes intensified and thousands rushed to the border,” Turkish daily Hurriyet reported Sunday.
On June 10, Turkey shut the Akçakale border crossing which connects Tel Abyad to the neighboring country, while ISIS fighters tried to prevent civilians from leaving the besieged town.
Members of the extremist group have reportedly approached the border crossing in the past few days, defying Turkish soldiers along the boundary and trying to move refugees back to Tel Abyad.
ARA news cited woman fleeing the violence near the border as saying that ISIS was still “preventing displaced people from reaching the crossing.”
She added that “the city of Tel Abyad is now evacuated completely of civilians.”
Eyewitnesses also told the Kurdish outlet, which focuses its coverage on northern Syria, that “the Turkish army brought reinforcements near the crossing of Tel Abyad, including tanks and armored vehicles, in preparation for any emergency.”
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