On Monday, the Islamic State of Iraq and Al-Sham (ISIS) suffered arguably one of their biggest setbacks in Syria, as the predominately Kurdish “People’s Defense Units” (YPG) – in coordination with the Free Syrian Army (FSA) – delivered an embarrassing defeat to this terrorist organization at the battle for Tal Abyad in the northern countryside of the Ar-Raqqa Governorate.
It did not take long for the joint forces of the YPG and FSA to steamroll through the remaining enemy combatants held-up at the Syrian border-city of Tal Abyad; however, not many could have calculated the rapid success the aforementioned groups would have against this powerful terrorist organization that has taken control of 60 percent of Syrian and 40 percent of Iraqi territory.
The Tal Abyad border-crossing is imperative to the ISIS Central Command due to its proximity to the latter’s capital at Raqqa City and its strategic supply route from Turkey that is used to resupply their entrenched fighters on a number of fronts, including Al-Hasakah, east Aleppo, east Hama, Deir Ezzor, and east Homs.
Where does ISIS go from here? While ISIS still controls more than one border-crossing into Turkey, they will shift their focus to the northern Aleppo front, where their fighters are currently combatting the Syrian Al-Qaeda group “Jabhat Al-Nusra” and their allies from the Levantine Front for the strategic ‘Azaz border-crossing.
