Kurdish forces make big gains on IS in Syria

The Kurds, aided by US-led air strikes and smaller Syrian rebel groups pushed to within 7 km of Ain Issa, a town 50 km north of Islamic State’s de facto capital Raqqa city, according to a spokesman for the Kurdish forces.

The rapid advance has defied expectations of a protracted battle between the Kurdish YPG group and Islamic State fighters, who waged a four-month battle for the border town of Kobani, where the Kurds finally defeated the jihadists in January.

Read more: Islamic State: Syrian child refugees' reflections - Lindsay Hilsum 

Kurdish front ‘good news’

Raqqa is the main seat of power in Syria for the so-called Islamic State, which has proclaimed a caliphate to rule over all Muslims from territory it controls in both Syria and Iraq.

The Kurdish front in northern Syria has been one of the few sources of good news for the global campaign against Islamic State since the jihadists made major advances last month near both Damascus and Baghdad.

A spokesman for the Pentagon said last week Islamic State forces had appeared to “crack” at Tel Abyad, the town at the Turkish border that fell to the YPG in less than two days, cutting Islamic State’s supply route from Turkey.

Some refugees from the area have accused the YPG of driving Arabs and Turkmen from territory seized from Islamic State. Kurdish officials deny forcing people out and say such accusations are being made to stir up ethnic strife. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says there is no evidence of systematic abuses by the YPG, though there have been individual cases.