IS loses last stretch of Syria-Turkey border: monitor

Beirut, Sep 4 (AFP) Turkish forces and Syrian rebelsexpelled the Islamic State group from the last areas of theSyrian-Turkish border under their control today, the SyrianObservatory for Human Rights said. "IS has lost its contact with the outside world afterlosing the remaining border villages," the Britain-basedmonitor said. The Observatory said "rebels and Islamist factions backedby Turkish tanks and warplanes" had taken several villages onthe border "after IS withdrew from them, ending IS’spresence… on the border." The advance come after Turkey launched an operationdubbed Euphrates Shield on August 24, saying it was targetingboth IS but also Syrian Kurdish forces that have been key todriving the jihadists out of other parts of the Syrian-Turkishborder. The Kurdish YPG militia is a key partner of the US-ledcoalition against IS, and has recaptured large swathes ofterritory in Syria from the extremist group. But Ankara considers the YPG a "terrorist" group and hasbeen alarmed by its expansion along the border, fearing thecreation of a contiguous, semi-autonomous Kurdish region innorthern Syria. The loss of the Turkish border will deprive IS of a keytransit point for recruits and supplies, though the groupcontinues to hold territory in both Syria and Iraq. (AFP)AJR