MIDEAST-CRISIS/TURKEY-SYRIA BORDER Free Syrian fighters patrol along border with Turkey

Record ID: 151658

  • Title: MIDEAST-CRISIS/TURKEY-SYRIA BORDER Free Syrian fighters patrol along border with Turkey
  • Date: 16th June 2015
  • Summary: TEL ABYAD, SYRIA (AS SEEN FROM AKCAKALE, TURKEY) (JUNE 16, 2015) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF FIGHTERS HOLDING FREE SYRIAN ARMY FLAGS STANDING BY VEHICLES AT BORDER COMPOUND MEN SITTING ON BACK OF MOVING VEHICLE VEHICLE PARKED AT BORDER GATE ARMED MEN WALKING PAST A VEHICLE DISPLAYING FREE SYRIAN ARMY FLAG VEHICLE DRIVING THROUGH BORDER COMPOUND KURDISH PEOPLES PROTECTION UNIT (YP
  • Embargoed: 1st July 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Turkey
  • Country: Turkey
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA5ZSZ9M0RLQKIA52OFU0O43SZJ
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Kurdish YPG and Free Syrian Army fighters were seen milling around in Syria's Tel Abyad crossing on Tuesday (June 16) a day after Syrian Kurdish-led forces said they'd captured the town from Islamic State.
    The capture of Tel Abyad by the Kurdish YPG and smaller Syrian rebel groups means the Syrian Kurds effectively control some 400 km (250 miles) of the Syrian-Turkish border that has been a conduit for foreign fighters joining Islamic State.
    While the advance has brought the well-organised YPG deep into Islamic State's stronghold of Raqqa province, it has also concerned Turkey, which is worried the expansion of Kurdish sway risks inflaming separatist sentiment among its Kurdish minority.
    Fighting near the border has forced more than 18,000 people to cross into Turkey from Syria, aid workers say. A further 5,000 are believed to have crossed on Monday (June 15), according to a Reuters photographer at the scene.
    On Tuesday, several Syrian families could be seen carrying their belongings as they walked towards the border fence.
    Turkey is already hosting 1.8 million Syrians, more than any of Syria's other neighbours and one of the biggest refugee populations in a single country anywhere in the world.
    The refugees have been fleeing more than four years of civil war which grew out of a March 2011 uprising against President Bashar al-Assad.
    The YPG-led forces also seized control of the road linking Tel Abyad to the Islamic State's de facto capital of Raqqa city, about 50 miles (80 km) to the south, cutting off a supply route which Islamic State had used to send reinforcements.
    Tel Abyad, on the border with Turkey, has been a main conduit for Islamic State to smuggle weapons and oil.
    Turkey views the YPG as part of the PKK, which has fought a decades-long insurgency against Ankara and is considered a terrorist organisation by Turkey, the United States and the European Union.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2015. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
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