A Freed Syrian Town From The Islamic State Is Now Facing New Difficulties

Liz Sly, Washington Post: They freed a Syrian town from ISIS. Now they have to govern it.

TAL ABYAD, Syria — When Islamic State fighters fled this northern Syrian town in June, they took with them the electricity generators, the water pumps, the hospital equipment and pretty much everything else that had helped sustain the semblance that they ran a functioning state.

They left behind their graffiti, their instruments of torture, the block of wood on which they beheaded their victims, the cage in which they punished smokers — and a community riven with suspicion and distrust.

Today, Tal Abyad is a tense and troubled place. Its new Kurdish masters are seeking to assert their control over a mixed town that, at least until recently, had an Arab majority — some of whom were not entirely unhappy to be governed by the Islamic State.

WNU Editor: And in this mix U.S. backed rebels are launching new attacks .... New U.S.-backed Syrian rebel alliance declares offensive against Islamic State (Reuters).