ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – In a potential turning point in the fightback against the Islamic State, Kurdish forces on Tuesday said they had retaken the strategic Iraqi town of Rabia that straddles a main road near the border with Syria. Rabia has provided a road link for the jihadists between their strongholds in Syria and Iraq, including the country’s second largest city of Mosul which IS captured in June. The loss of Rabia would be the most significant setback for ISIS forces in northern Iraq since the launch of U.S. and allied air strike earlier this month. A Peshmerga commander, Shiekh Ahmad Mohammad, told Rudaw: “Rabia is under the control of Kurdish forces. We are leaving their bodies behind and picking up their abandoned weapons.” The YPG, the protection force of the Kurdish-held zone in neighbouring Syria, said the capture of Rabia was a joint operation between them and the Peshmerga of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) but this was not immediately confirmed by the Peshmerga side. The YPG has been harassing ISIS forces in the area, while further west, in Rojava, its units have been resisting the advance of ISIS forces against the Syrian-Turkish border town of Kobane. Selahattin Demirtas, a leader of Turkey’s pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) crossed the border into Kobane on Tuesday in a visit of solidarity. He later called on the Turkish government to support the fight of Syrian Kurds against ISIS. He said this was an opportunity to strengthen Turkey's peace process with its own Kurdish population. Rabia was just one scene of the latest clashes on the battle front where the Peshmerga share a 1050 km frontier with IS. Heavy fighting was also reported at Zumar, near the strategic Mosul dam, and near Kirkuk, where Rudaw correspondent Hunar Ahmed spoke with the Peshmerga (see video). Peshmerga sources earlier told Rudaw that large numbers of ISIS forces had withdrawn from the Shingal region, south of Rabia, on Monday and headed to the Syrian border. On other fronts, south of Kirkuk, six Peshmerga were injured by roadside bombs planted in the Daqquq district. Peshmerga have reported that IS have been planted such devices in every area where they have withdrawn. An officer said the Kurdish fighters had retaken the village of al-Wahda, around 30km south of Kirkuk, after beating off stiff resistance. Rudaw correspondent Suleiman Ali Khan, reporting from the outskirts of Rabia, said: “The Peshmerga have looked exhausted in other fights, but this time we see high morale fighting IS.”
