Daesh didn't attack Syria's Tal Abyad from Turkey: Sources

ANKARA

Local sources denied Monday reports that Daesh terrorists last week had briefly entered the town of Tal Abyad in Syria’s northern city of Raqqah from Turkish territory.

Last week, Daesh terrorists launched a brazen attack on Tal Abyad, which is controlled by the PYD terrorist group.

The PYD is the Syrian affiliate of the terrorist PKK organization.

According to local sources, around 50 Daesh terrorists were killed in clashes with the PYD when they tried to enter the town.

Afterward, the PYD alleged that Daesh had attempted to infiltrate Tal Abyad from Turkish territory.

The local sources, however, denied the claims, saying Daesh terrorists had briefly managed to enter the town, but stressed that they had come from areas west of the Euphrates River to the south of Tal Abyad -- not from Turkish territory.

"Daesh militants [temporarily] infiltrated the town in phases," one local source said, going on to assert that Daesh had used some of its Kurdish members to facilitate the process.

"Sleeper cells [in Tal Abyad] are likely to have played a role in this," the source said.

Backed by U.S.-led coalition airstrikes, the PYD seized control of Tal Abyad from Daesh in June of last year, prompting Arab and Turkmen residents of the area to flee.

Last October, Amnesty International accused the PYD of committing war crimes in predominantly Arab and Turkmen areas of northern Syria.