ISIS Routs Rivals, Seizing Key Towns Along Syria-Turkey Border
Source: Antiwar
In fighting over the weekend, ISIS forces seized the town of Soran Azaz and some nearby villages from a rival rebel faction, putting them on the outskirts of the important city of Azaz and the accompanying border crossing into Turkey.
Control over border crossings has long been a major goal for rebel factions in the Syrian Civil War, as whoever controls a crossing can demand a portion of any arms smuggled in by rival factions through that route. ISIS already has a substantial portion of the Syria-Turkey border, as well as virtually the whole Syria-Iraq border.
Turkey has long been the go-to smuggling route for rebels, with Turkish spy agencies not only looking the other way, but even providing some arms of their own to Islamist rebels factions, a scandal that has been the subject of growing concern among Turkish prosecutors.
Read more: http://news.antiwar.com/2015/05/31/isis-routs-rivals-seizing-key-towns-along-syria-turkey-border/
All the blowback from the wars is spiraling out of control.