Posted on 06/16/2015 10:09:27 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
BEIRUT — The Islamic State was routed Monday from one of its key strongholds on Syria’s border with Turkey after its defenses crumbled and its fighters either defected or fled, raising new questions about the group’s vaunted military capabilities.
The fall of the town of Tal Abyad to a Kurdish-Syrian rebel force backed by U.S. airstrikes came after just two days of fighting during which the militants appeared to put up little resistance, focusing instead on escaping to their nearby self-styled capital of Raqqa or fleeing across the border to Turkey.
The force — led by Kurdish units of the People’s Protection Units, or YPG, and including local battalions of the rebel Free Syrian Army — pulled the Islamic State flag down from the border crossing with Turkey on Monday and by nightfall said it was in control of the town center.
There were reports of scattered fighting on the western outskirts of Tal Abyad, but the advancing force had already severed the militants’ escape route, closing in on the town Sunday in a pincer movement from the east, south and west.
It appeared the Islamic State had suffered a stunning defeat, its first major reversal since it was driven out of the Iraqi city of Tikrit in April, and one that could prove far more consequential. Tal Abyad commands the major trade and smuggling routes on which the Islamic State has relied for its supplies from the outside world and, most significant, the flow of foreign fighters to Raqqa, the first major city it conquered.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Well done, Kurds!
Surprised Obama didn’t send in airstrikes...to push back the Kurds...
Historically you just f-— with the Kurds.....Proven time after time through the centuries.........even Xenophon said they were his toughest opponent in the Retreat of the Ten Thousand............
“Women are like gongs. They should be struck regularly.” - Noel Coward
Imagine how it would be if we armed the Kurds like we have armed the rebels and Iraqi military.
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