Kurds seize another key ISIL position
June 23, 2015, 5:15 am

Kurdish forces in Iraq and Syria have engaged in successful operations to drive back ISIL fighters, and liberate strategic areas [Xinhua]

On Monday, a Kurdish military spokesperson told the media that they had captured a former army base, which had belonged to the Syrian army but had fallen to ISIL last year.

The army base, which lies some 50 kilometers north of the self-styled Islamic State capital Raqqa, is of prime strategic importance because it lies on a main supply line for the Islamist extremist group.

The Kurdish victory is the second in northeastern Syria in less than a week. On June 15 and 16, Kurdish forces working with units from the Free Syrian Army (which has been fighting the Syrian Army in a bid to bring down the government of Bashar Al Assad) captured Tal Abyad, a strategic town straddling the Turkish border.

US-led air raids against ISIL positions played a significant role in defeating the group there, too.

Now, with the army base in the hands of the Kurdish Popular Protection militia (YPG), there are hopes that there will be a push to liberate Raqqa and significantly debilitate ISIL’s effectiveness in Syria.

Such a scenario would mean that efforts to liberate Iraqi ISIL-controlled cities such as Mosul and Ramadi could be launched from Syrian territory.

The two successful military operations indicate that ISIL is vulnerable – an important morale booster after the fall of the ancient city of Palmyra in Syria and the capture of Ramadai, capital of Anbar province four weeks ago.

Kurdish forces in both Iraq and Syria appear to have proven the most effective against ISIL. They have successfully liberated dozens of towns and villages in northern Iraq and helped evacuate thousands of ethnic minorities under siege from ISIL forces.

In Syria in January, thanks to intensive US-led air raids against ISIL positions, the YPG liberated the city of Kobani (or Ain Al Arab) following four months of intensive and often brutal fighting to end the ISIL occupation.

But some analysts are warning not to underestimate ISIL, which took Ramadi in a blitzkrieg in May after they had been deemed on the run following their loss of Tikrit in Iraq.

On June 21, a suicide bomber killed and wounded at least 10 YPG fighters at their headquarters in Qamishli, another Syrian city along the northeastern border with Turkey

The BRICS Post with inputs from Agencies