BEIRUT: Kurdish fighters pressed an offensive on Saturday to capture a key Syrian border town from the self-styled Islamic State group, as Turkish forces sought to prevent thousands fleeing the fighting from crossing the frontier.

Further west, an Islamist rebel alliance pushed IS extremists back from a strategic cross-border supply route.

The Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) edged closer on Saturday to Tal Abyad, a border town used by jihadists as a gateway from Turkey into IS’s bastion province of Raqa.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said YPG fighters, backed by Syrian rebels and air strikes from the US-led coalition fighting IS, advanced to within 10 kilometres southwest of Tal Abyad.

“The Kurds, along with a few Syrian rebel groups, want to surround the town and cut off IS’s supply route,” said Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman.

The YPG marched closer to the vital border crossing after routing the jihadists in Suluk, a town east of Tal Abyad.

Abdel Rahman said most IS fighters had withdrawn from Suluk on Saturday, but had booby-trapped homes and scattered mines throughout the streets.

He said fighting and air strikes around Suluk had killed 16 IS jihadists and at least three civilians.

Clashes were ongoing on either side of Tal Abyad, forcing residents to flee south to Raqa city, or north to the Turkish border.

Thousands of displaced Syrians amassed at the frontier, prompting Turkish security forces to use water cannons and fire warning shots to push them away.

Officials said Turkey had taken in over 13,500 refugees escaping the fighting in recent days, but Turkish forces did not allow any through the border gate on Saturday.

Turkey is a key backer of the political and military opposition to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, and already hosts more than 1.8 million Syrian refugees.

Published in Dawn, June 14th, 2015

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