Kurdish Fighters Take Tal Abyad

Kurdish fighters seized most of the Syrian border town of Tal Abyad from Islamic State fighters on Monday, depriving them of a key supply route they used to smuggle weapons and fighters in from Turkey.

The Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) and their Arab allies entered Tal Abyad after taking a border post and cutting off the road south to the Islamic State stronghold of Raqqa, Rami Abdulrahman, director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, was quoted as saying.

The monitoring group added that there remained “some small pockets of resistance from small groups of Islamic State fighters who are still holed up inside.”

The Kurds and their allies had surrounded Tal Abyad after being backed during their efforts by U.S. airstrikes. The fall of the town is a blow to the Islamic State, since it was its main supply line between Raqqa and the Turkish border and was also believed to have been used to smuggle out black-market oil.

The fighting has forced thousands of civilians to flee, with some 20,000 having crossed into Turkey since last week.

Syrian Rebel Groups Accuse Kurds of ‘Ethnic Cleansing’

In a related development, Syrian rebel groups accused the YPG of deliberately displacing thousands of Arabs and Turkmens during its campaign against ISIS in northeast Syria.

The groups, including the powerful ultraconservative Ahrar al-Sham and Jaish al-Islam, accuse the YPG of “ethnic cleansing,” mainly in the northeastern predominantly Kurdish province of Hassakeh and in Tal Abyad.

It is a charge that the Kurds strongly deny but which could potentially escalate tensions between ethnic Arabs and Kurds as the Kurds conquer more territory in northern Syria. There was no immediate evidence that the Kurds have engaged in ethnic or sectarian killings.

Erdogan Troubled by Kurdish Advances

The statement follows close on the heels of a warning by the Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan that he was troubled by the advance of Kurdish forces in the Tal Abyad region, which he said could threaten his country.

Notably, the Kurdish victory could help create a contiguous slice of Kurdish-held territory adjoining Turkey, prompting serious concern in Ankara, which has battled the YPG-linked Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) for decades.

Erdogan repeated allegations that ethnic Arabs and Turkmen were being targeted in the advance and confirmed that his country had taken in some 15,000 of them last week before closing the border.

“This is not a good sign,” Erdogan told reporters. “This could lead to the creation of a structure that threatens our borders. Everyone needs to take into account our sensitivities on this issue.”

U.N. Special Envoy Arrives in Damascus for Talks with Government Officials

Meanwhile, the U.N. special envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, is in Damascus, and will specifically raise the issue of the Assad government’s use of barrel bombs, the U.N. said.

“Mr. de Mistura intends to raise with the Syrian government the issue of protection of civilians, underlining once again the unacceptable use of barrel bombs and the incontestable duty of any government, in all circumstances, to protect its civilians, under international humanitarian law,” said U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric.

The Assad government has been internationally condemned for its frequent use of barrel bombs – large barrel-shaped metal containers filled with high explosives, possibly with shrapnel, oil or chemicals, indiscriminately dropped from the air, usually be helicopter.

The spokesman said the special envoy, who will be in Damascus for three days, also plans to discuss the current humanitarian situation in Syria and ways to increase access to besieged and conflict-affected communities.

The envoy met with Syrian foreign minister Walid Muallem, who said he “supported efforts made by de Mistura for a political solution” to the conflict, the state-run SANA news agency reported.

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