On Monday, ISIL lost a key supply line to its capital Raqqa after a group of Kurdish fighters known as YPG entered Tal Abyad, a town to the north of Syria, and seized a large part of its territory.
"We expect to have full control over Tal Abyad within a few hours," Redur Khalil, a spokesman for the main Kurdish fighting force told the Associated Press.
ISIL had ransacked the city, taking everything valuable from the municipality of Tel Abyad, then had mostly left the town for Raqqa. According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, by Monday there were only around 150 ISIL fighters in Tel Abyad.
After intense fighting, with horrific scenes at the nearby border with Turkey where civilians were trapped between the YPG and ISIL elements, the majority of the town was occupied by Kurdish fighters.
Photo: Inside #TelAbyad that #YPG/#FSA forces have now taken from #ISIS pic.twitter.com/LQn6jk52G0
— Conflict News (@rConflictNews) June 15, 2015
"It is only a matter of time until Tal Abyad is taken [from ISIL]," said Idriss Nassan, the deputy representative for foreign affairs of the self-declared Kurdish authority of Kobani.