The battle for Syria and Iraq Source: News Corp Australia

Syrian refugees, who had fled Tal Abyad, re-enter with their belongings after Kurdish People's Protection Units took control of the area. Source: AFP

A spokesman for the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) and a Britain-based monitor said anti-Islamic State forces took Ain Issa after capturing the nearby Brigade 93 base.

“Ain Issa has come under our full control, along with dozens of villages in the surrounding area,” said spokesman Redur Khalil.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitor, said Islamic State had withdrawn from the town and YPG and rebel forces were checking for mines laid by the jihadists.

Ain Issa’s fall comes after Islamic State ceded control of the Brigade 93 base on Tuesday and the border town of Tal Abyad more than a week ago.

Ain Issa and Brigade 93 are 55km north of Raqqa, the de facto capital of Islamic State’s self-­declared “caliphate” in Syria and Iraq. They lie on a highway betwee­n Kurdish-held territory in Aleppo province to the west and Hasakeh province to the east.

The route links territory held by Islamic State in Aleppo and Hasakeh provinces. “It’s also a defence line for Raqqa,” said Mutlu Civiroglu, a Kurdish affairs analyst. “Considering that Raqqa is a sort of capital of the ‘caliphate’, it creates a lot of pressure on IS.”

The YPG-rebel advance has been backed by air power from the US-led coalition fighting Islamic State, with the observatory saying at least 26 jihadists were killed in international strikes in and around Ain Issa on Monday.

The monitor said on Tuesday that at least 2896 people — mostly Islamic State jihadists — had been killed in coalition strikes in Syria since the air campaign began on September 23 last year.

The toll included 2628 Islamic State members, mostly foreign fighters, as well as 105 fighters from Islamic State’s rival jihadist group the al-Nusra Front, and one Islamist fighter.

The observatory said coalition strikes had also killed 162 civilians, 52 of them children, in Syria.

The Pentagon has acknowledged just two civilian deaths in Syria in the international campaign against Islamic State.

Observatory head Rami Abdul Rahman said Islamic State’s defen­ce lines had been “pushed back to the outskirts of Raqqa city”.

The capture of Tal Abyad on June 16 cut off a key conduit for Islamic State, which had used the border town to bring in fighters and weapons from Turkey and export black market oil.

Kurdish forces have taking Islami­c State territory in the northern Raqqa province for months, after repelling a fierce jihadi­st attack on the border town of Kobane in January.

The YPG has emerged as “argua­bly the most effective fighting force against IS in Syria”, analyst Sirwan Kajjo said after Tal Abyad’s capture.

Mr Khalil declined to comment on where anti-Islamic State fighters would now focus, but suggested an operation against Raqqa was unlikely soon. “Raqqa is much further away, and well-defended, it would require significant forces and weapons,” he said.

Mr Civiroglu also said any offen­sive against Raqqa would requir­e lengthy planning and addition­al weapons for the YPG and its allies, who would opt to consolidate their hold on Tal Abyad and surrounding areas.

Syria’s four-year war has left more than 230,000 people dead and forced millions to flee their homes.

Government and opposition forces have been criticised for indiscrim­inate attacks that have killed civilians. UN investigators denounced the “unspeakable suffering” of civ­ilians caught under barrel bomb attacks or in besieged­ towns.

AFP