Turkey uneasy as increasingly powerful Kurds, with U.S. help, seize key Syria border town from Islamic State fighters

WORLD

Turkey uneasy as increasingly powerful Kurds, with U.S. help, seize key Syria border town from Islamic State fighters

Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) fighters hold their movement's flag near the Akcakale crossing gate between Turkey and Syria at Akcakale in Sanliurfa province on Monday, when Kurdish forces seized a post on Syria's border with Turkey, a vital supply line to the Islamic State group, as they battle for the jihadi-held town of Tal Abyad. The Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) took up positions on the Syrian side of the border post after they advanced on Tal Abyad from east and west and cut the road south to Raqqa, the Islamic State de facto capital. | AFP-JIJI

Reuters

Jun 16, 2015

AMMAN/AKCAKALE, TURKEY – Syrian Kurdish-led forces said they had captured a town at the Turkish border from Islamic State on Monday, driving it away from the frontier in an advance backed by U.S.-led airstrikes that has thrust deep into the jihadis’ Syria stronghold.

The capture of Tel Abyad by the Kurdish YPG and smaller Syrian rebel groups means the Syrian Kurds effectively control some 400 km (250 miles) of the Syrian-Turkish border that has been a conduit for foreign fighters joining Islamic State.

While the advance has brought the well-organized YPG deep into Islamic State’s stronghold of Raqqa province, it has also concerned Turkey, which is worried the expansion of Kurdish sway risks inflaming separatist sentiment among its Kurdish minority.