Syrian Kurds Score Major Victory Over IS Group at Tal Abyad

Syrian Kurdish fighters seized control of a key supply route to the Islamic state group's de facto capital of Raqqa Monday, according to militants.

Social media accounts linked to the Kurdish YPG militia posted images of Kurdish fighters occupying the Syrian border town of Tal Abyad. Referred to as Gire Sipi in Kurdish, the town was a crucial supply route for the Islamic State group. The YPG’s women’s wing, the YPJ, played a major role in the offensive, and are now holding defensive positions around the town, according to Kurdish reports on social media.

The YPG says its occupation of the town means a number of Kurdish enclaves straddling the border are now linked, giving the militia a logistical advantage over the Islamic State group in the region.

"The whole city is under our control and there is no more fighting," YPG commander Huseyin Kocher stated, according to the BBC.

The U.K.-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) has confirmed the victory.

“YPG and rebels were able to take full control on the city, (the Islamic State group has) pulled back into the southern and western villages,” SOHR said in a statement.

The observatory also corroborated YPG statements on social media that Kurdish fighters are now mopping up remnant Islamic state group troops in outlying villages.

At least 40 fighters from the Islamic State group were killed near one village during a bungled retreat, according to SOHR.

The capture of Tal Abyad is the latest major victory for the YPG in northern Syria, after the militia broke an Islamic State group offensive at Kobani earlier this year.

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The YPG aims to carve out political autonomy for regions in Syria's predominantly ethnically Kurdish north.

Unlike most other militias in Syria's civil war, the YPG claims to be fiercely democratic, and supports women’s rights. Officers are purportedly democratically elected, and the YPJ has been hailed by Kurdish leaders as playing a central role in the defeat of the Islamic State group at Kobani earlier this year.