(MENAFN- Arab Times) Kurdish fighters seized control Tuesday of a key border town from the Islamic State group, cutting a major supply line in the biggest setback yet for the jihadists in Syria. From across the frontier in Turkey, the Kurds and allied Syrian rebels could be seen raising their banners in place of the black IS flag and taking up positions at the Tal Abyad border post. The capture of Tal Abyad, used by IS as a gateway from Turkey to its de facto capital Raqa city, was "the biggest setback to IS since it announced its caliphate one year ago," said Rami Abdel Rahman, the head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group. The frontier town was a key conduit for foreign fighters and supplies into IS-held territory in Syria and for exports of black market oil from jihadist-held fields in eastern Syria. Tal Abyad's fall to the Kurds was "the most significant loss for IS in Syria yet," said Aymenn al-Tamimi, an expert at the Middle East Forum research group. The Kurdish forces and Syrian rebel allies launched a two-pronged attack on Tal Abyad on June 11, backed by air strikes by the US-led coalition fighting IS in Syria and Iraq.
Capturing
The anti-IS forces encircled the town from the southwest and southeast before capturing the border crossing just north of it on Monday. The Observatory and Kurdish sources said they had seized full control of the town by early Tuesday. "IS withdrew without much fight yesterday" It was an easy win," said Ahmed Seyxo, a spokesman for the Democratic Union Party, the political party tied to the YPG. Meanwhile, Iraqi officials say families have begun returning to Tikrit two and a half months after security forces backed by Shiite militias drove the Islamic State group out of the northern Sunni city. Gov. Raed al-Jabouri of Salahuddin province told The Associated Press on Tuesday that around 200 families had returned the day before. Al-Jabouri says more than 1,000 families are expected to return Thursday. State TV aired footage of security forces guarding busses packed with people, some waving Iraqi flags.
Some residents could be seen embracing security forces when they reached Tikrit. The IS group captured Tikrit last summer during its sweep across the country. Iraqi forces managed to retake it following weeks of intense fighting and US-led airstrikes, marking their biggest gain yet against the extremist group. In other news, Three British sisters are feared to have travelled with their nine children to join up with jihadists in Syria, a lawyer for the children's parents said Monday.
The family, from Bradford in northern England, went missing after travelling to Medina in Saudi Arabia for an Islamic pilgrimage. Sisters Sugra Dawood, 34, Zohra Dawood, 33, and Khadija Dawood, 30, travelled to Medina with their children, aged three to 15, on May 28. They were due to return to Bradford on Thursday, but they broke off all contact with their family back in Britain two days earlier. Preliminary inquiries suggest at least 10 members of the family boarded a flight from Medina to Istanbul - a commonly used route into Syria. There are no details of an eight-year-old and a five-year-old member of the party boarding the same flight.
Balaal Khan, a lawyer for the children's fathers, said it is understood the sisters have a relative fighting for either Islamic State or another extremist group in Syria, and it is feared they have met up with him. "The fathers are distraught, they feel helpless and they don't now what to do. They want the children out of harm's way," he said. "They are concerned that their children's lives are in danger. "The suspicion, and main concern, is that the women have taken their children to Syria." The local West Yorkshire Police force has launched an investigation, saying they were working with foreign authorities.
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