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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 kilometers (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 10 kilometers (six 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.
In
Iraq, coordinated Islamic State suicide attacks targeting Iraqi
government security posts killed 13 people Saturday north of Baghdad, as
security forces repelled more suicide attacks by the extremists in
Anbar province, authorities said.
Four suicide
bombers driving explosive-laden cars rammed into two security
checkpoints and a military headquarters in the al-Hajaj area within a
15-minute span, killing 13 Shiite militiamen and troops and wounding 24,
police said.
Al-Hajaj lies on the road
between Beiji and Tikrit in Salahuddin province. The key refinery town
of Beiji has been the scene of fierce fighting between Islamic State
militants and government troops, backed by Shiite militias, who took
control of the town's center a few days ago.
The
suicide bombings were claimed by the radical IS group on its twitter
account, which said the four attacks were perpetrated by British,
German, Kuwaiti and Palestinian militants.
The
statement, which was translated by the U.S.-based SITE Intelligence
Group, said the men targeted the posts for Iraqi army and Shiite
militias. Pictures of the alleged suicide bombers were shown in the
statement.
Meanwhile, police said security
forces repelled Islamic State suicide attacks near the town of Garma,
east of militant-held city of Fallujah. The attackers used four suicide
cars in the assault that left no casualties among the government forces,
they said. Recently received U.S. anti-tank missiles were used to
destroy the suicide cars, police and military officials there said.
Hospital
officials confirmed the casualty figures from the Salahuddin province
attacks. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity as they weren't
authorized to speak to journalists.
Iraqi
forces, backed by Shiite militias and U.S.-led airstrikes, have been
struggling to regain control of the vast areas lost to the Islamic State
group during its stunning blitz last year.
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