Syria | Kurds take town, base near Islamic State stronghold

Kurdish fighters of the YPG sit on their pickup in the town of Ein Eissa, north of Raqqa city

Syrian Kurdish fighters and their allies yesterday captured a town once held by the Islamic State group, inching closer to the main IS stronghold in Syria and the de facto capital of the militants’ self-proclaimed caliphate.
The capture of the town of Ein Issa — hours after the Kurdish troops took the nearby Brigade 93 military base — further squeezes the IS extremists, especially after they lost a major supply line when the Kurds captured the town of Tal Abyad on the Turkish border last week.
The advance put the Kurdish guerrilla within about 50 kilometers of the Islamic State’s stronghold of Raqqa. But even with the aid of U.S.-led airstrikes, battling even closer to Raqqa the could prove costly for the Kurds and allied Syrian rebel factions.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and Kurdish activist Mustafa Bali said Kurdish fighters from the People’s Protection Units, or YPG, captured the military base on Monday night.
Later yesterday, the Observatory and YPG spokesman Redur Khalil said Kurdish fighters and their allies took over the nearby town of Ein Issa, the last major residential area north of Raqqa, which the Islamic State group considers the capital of its self-declared “caliphate” or Islamic state that spans across Syria and Iraq.
“Ein Issa and dozens of villages around it are under our control,” Khalil said over the telephone. He said the next task is to enforce and protect these areas because they know that the IS will strike back.
The Observatory said the YPG and its allies are also trying to gain control of a highway linking the northern city of Aleppo, Syria’s largest, with the northeastern city of Hassakeh.
It remained unclear whether the Kurds will try and push farther toward Raqqa. Also, despite the recent Kurdish gains, the Islamic State militants still have another supply line from Turkey, this one running through northwestern Syria to Raqqa. Bassem Mroue, Beirut, AP