MESOP NEWS : Kurdish fighters & allied Syrian rebels continue progress against ISIS north Raqqa

June 8, 2015 – ARA News – Urfa, Turkey – As battles continue against militants of the Islamic State (IS/ISIS) in northeastern Syria, the joint forces of People’s Protection Units (YPG) and Burkan al-Furat rebels regained control of several locations and villages in south of Tel Abyad (Gire Spi) in Raqqa province, military sources reported on Sunday.Speaking to ARA News, the official spokesman of Burkan al-Furat battalion, Shervan Darwish, said that the joint forces took control of the village of Jortank and surrounding farms southwest of Tel Abyad “after clashes with IS terrorists who withdrew from the village under the fire of the joint forces”. Darwish pointed out that the military campaign for “liberating” the city of Tel Abyad from IS group continues in the western and southern countrysides of the city, toward the town of Ain Issa.

“Our campaign will not stop until liberating Tel Abyad and expelling Islamic State terrorists out of the area,” Darwish said. “After liberating Jortank, our fighters seized weapons and ammunition, and killed seven terrorists whose bodies are still thrown in the battlefield,” Darwish told ARA News.ARA News could not verify the number of casualties among the joint forces. In the meantime, the at-Tahreer Brigade of the Free Syrian Army (FSA), which is fighting the IS alongside the YPG forces in the eastern countryside of Tel Abyad, issued a statement refuting “rumors about IS fighting back” and reassuring commitment to secure the region from any IS-led attacks. The joint forces are locked in fierce battles with IS group in the outskirts of the Suluk town, which is just 18 km east of Tel Abyad, coinciding with anti-IS intensified air raids by the U.S.-led coalition in the surrounding villages.