BEIRUT (AP) — In contrast to the Iraqi army’s failures, Kurdish fighters in Syria are on the march against the Islamic State group, capturing towns and villages in an oil-rich swath of the country’s northeast under the cover of US-led airstrikes.
As the Kurds close in on Tel Abyad, a major commercial center on the Turkish border, their advance highlights the decisive importance of combining airstrikes with the presence of a cohesive and motivated ally on the ground — so clearly absent in Iraq.
In Syria, a country now split mostly between al-Qaeda-style militants and forces loyal to President Bashar Assad, the US has found a reliable partner in the country’s main Kurdish fighting force, known as the People’s Protection Units, or the Kurdish acronym YPG, founded by the Kurdish Democratic Union Party. They are moderate, mostly secular fighters, driven by revolutionary fervor and deep conviction in their cause. (READ MORE)
