Kurds battle ISIL on Syria border as Turkey blocks refugees

Kurdish fighters advanced June 13 to the outskirts of a key Syrian border town held by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), as Turkish forces sought to prevent thousands fleeing the fighting from crossing the frontier.

Further west, an Islamist rebel alliance pushed ISIL extremists back from a strategic cross-border supply route.    

The Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) edged closer on June 13 to Tal Abyad, a border town used by jihadists as a gateway from Turkey into ISIL's bastion province of Raqa.      

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said YPG fighters, backed by Syrian rebels and air strikes from the US-led coalition fighting ISIL, advanced to within just a few kilometres southeast of Tal Abyad.
 
"Kurdish forces are on the eastern outskirts of Tal Abyad, only five kilometres (three miles) from the town," said Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman.    

AFP Photo
Southwest of Tal Abyad, Kurdish militia seized another 20 villages as ISIL forces withdrew, Abdel Rahman said.  
 
He told AFP there were only 150 ISIL jihadists holding Tal Abyad itself, and that they, too, had threatened to withdraw if they did not receive reinforcements from Raqa.    

"But the leadership in Raqa will not send them reinforcements, because the coalition air strikes have been decimating IS [ISIL]," Abdel Rahman said.    
 
The YPG marched closer to the vital border crossing after routing the jihadists in Suluk, a town east of Tal Abyad.
 
Abdel Rahman said most ISIL fighters had withdrawn from Suluk on June 13, but had booby-trapped homes and scattered mines throughout the streets.
 
He said fighting and air strikes around Suluk had killed 16 ISIL jihadists...