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                     Kurds Close in on IS-held Syrian Town

   by Associated Press, VOA News

   Kurdish militias are closing in on an Islamic State-held town along
   Syria's frontier with Turkey, a day into an offensive to push back the
   militant group, Kurdish officials and Syrian activists said Sunday.

   Regaining control of Tal Abyad could cut off a route for Islamic State
   fighters and supplies.

   Thousands of Syrians have fled in anticipation of fighting along the
   northern border as Kurdish fighters advanced on Tal Abyad.

   Through social media, [1]a spokesman for the Kurdish YPG militia
   encouraged would-be refugees to move toward interior cities like
   Hasakah to wait out any violence, rather than leave the country.

   Turkish soldiers on Saturday and Sunday blocked anyone from crossing.

   Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday voiced concern over
   the refugees, claiming that their departure was leaving a vacuum for
   two Kurdish groups, the Democratic Union Party (PYD) and the outlawed
   Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), to gain ground along Turkey's border.

   "This is not a good sign," he told reporters.

   Erdogan has repeatedly disagreed with U.S.-led coalition airstrikes in
   northern Syria, saying they are targeting "Arab and Turkmen" residents
   in the area, and carving space for Kurds. Turkey has a fraught internal
   history with its own Kurdish minority community, and Syria's internal
   conflict paired with the Islamic State onslaught in the last year has
   led at least 1.5 million Syrian refugees to seek safety across the
   border.

   Following a week of heavy airstrikes in which the international
   coalition targeted more than 20 IS sites daily, the coalition scaled
   back on Saturday and Sunday. Overnight, the Pentagon reported 12
   strikes across Iraq and one in Kobani, Syria.

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   [2]http://www.voanews.com/content/kurds-close-in-on-is-held-syrian-town
   /2821291.html

References

   1. https://twitter.com/Rojekazad/status/609855805685411840
   2. http://www.voanews.com/content/kurds-close-in-on-is-held-syrian-town/2821291.html