Thousands Flee Kurdish Advance on Tal Abyad

Kurdish forces made a major advance on the Islamic State stronghold of Tal Abyad in northern Syria over the weekend, engaging in intense battles with the Islamic extremists, the Wall Street Journal reports.

The fighting forced thousands of desperate local residents to rush a nearby Turkish border crossing.

The Kurdish militia YPG, which is spearheading the offensive, said late on Sunday that it had engaged the Islamists inside Tal Abyad with the assistance of the Western-backed rebel group Free Syrian Army and the YPG’s female unit. The U.S. Central Command confirmed that ground forces composed of Syrian Kurdish fighters, Assyrian Christians, local tribes and opposition groups were advancing against Islamic State in the northeast of the country, aided by U.S. coalition airstrikes, according to the report.

The YPG said its fighters had “reached to the east of Tal Abyad, where fierce fighting is taking place between our combatants and terrorist groups.” The militia, according to the newspaper, said its fighters were less than three miles from a strategic Islamic State supply route leading to Raqqa, the Islamic State’s main base of operations in Syria.

The fighting forced thousands of desperate local residents to descend on the Akcakale border crossing with Turkey. Some refugees tore a hole in the chain link border fence, which is topped with barbed wire, and passed frightened women and children through it, according to the report, prompting Turkish forces to fire tear gas at crowds on Sunday. The Turkish troops had sprayed them using water cannon on Saturday.

At least 20,000 Syrians from Tal Abyad and the surrounding area are still waiting at the crossing, many of them children, a Turkish official in Akcakale was quoted as saying.

Secret CIA program in Syria faces substantial cut in funding

In a move that may reflect growing skepticism of the Obama administration’s Syrian strategy, U.S. lawmakers moved to reduce funding for a secret CIA operation to train and arm rebels in Syria, the Washington Post reports.

The House Intelligence Committee recently voted unanimously to cut as much as 20 percent of the classified funds flowing into a CIA program, it said. Officials were quoted as saying that the program is currently one of the secretive agency’s largest, with a budget of nearly $1 billion a year.

“There is a great deal of concern on a very bipartisan basis with our strategy in Syria,” Rep. Adam B. Schiff (Calif.), the ranking Democrat on the intelligence panel, said. He expressed skepticism that Washington will be in a position “to help shape the aftermath” of Syria’s civil war.

The House is expected to vote on the proposed CIA cuts next week, when it considers a preliminary intelligence spending bill. CIA and White House officials have reportedly expressed concern that the move could weaken U.S.-backed insurgents just as they have begun to emerge as effective fighters and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is weakening.

“Regime losses across the front lines are edging the conflict closer to [Assad’s] doorstep,” a U.S. intelligence official was quoted as saying. The Syrian president “is not necessarily on the verge of defeat,” he said, noting that Russia and Iran continue to support him. But he added that regime losses in Idlib and elsewhere mean that “many people are starting to openly talk about an endgame for Assad and Syria.”

Israel considering ‘safe zone’ for Druze

According to the Israeli news site Walla, Israel is considering creating a “safe zone” on the Syrian side of the Golan Heights to protect Druze refugees.

Israel has been speaking with a number of countries, the UN and the International Red Cross about how to create this humanitarian zone, security sources were quoted as saying.

The move follows the killing last week of at least 20 Druze villagers by the Syrian al-Qaida affiliate Jabhat al-Nusra in northwestern Syria.

“There is no intention to absorb Druze refugees into Israel, but as a people that experienced the Holocaust, we have no intention of ignoring the possibility of a mass genocide of the Druze minority,” a senior source told Walla.

The majority of Syrian Druze live in and around the southern province of Sweida in a region also known as Jabal al-Druze, or Mount Druze, close to the Israeli border. Tens of thousands of their brethren live in Israel.

Recommended Reads

• Atlantic Council: Why Iran’s Plan B in Syria Will Not Work
• The Washington Post: Inside an Undercover Network Trying to Expose Islamic State’s Atrocities
• The Guardian: The Journey: Syrian Refugee Hashem Alsouki Risks his Life Crossing the Mediterranean, his Sights set on Sweden – and Freedom for his Family
• The New York Times: The Global Struggle to Respond to the Worst Refugee Crisis in Generations
• Newsweek: The High School Student Who Maps ISIS’s Lightning-Quick Advance