Syrian Kurdish forces tightened their grip on a key border crossing with Turkey held by the Islamic State (ISIL) on Sunday, and the conflict has created a dramatic situation for thousands of displaced Syrian civilians blocked at the border with Turkey, which accuses the Kurds, reports the Patria News Agency.
The Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) have captured the town of Suluk and are five kilometers from the border town of Tel Abyad, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) NGO announced.
The YPG has made significant progress in the area in recent weeks, with the support of intense US airstrikes on ISIL positions. The Tel Abyad area provides ISIL members with the most direct link from the porous Turkish border to their Syrian stronghold of Raqqa.
However, thousands of residents of this town, inhabited by both Arabs and Kurds, fled the fighting in hopes of finding refuge in Turkey, but on Sunday morning they were met at the border by barbed wire and the Turkish army, which prevented them from entering, even occasionally dispersing them with water cannons, reports AFP news agency.
The Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced on Thursday that about 13,400 refugees had arrived from the Tel Abyad area since last month and announced that it would temporarily close the border. Turkey has received nearly two million Syrian refugees since the beginning of the conflict in 2011.
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