ISIL/Nusra/Ahrar al-Sham victory Kurdish Front Democratic Union Party Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant Al-Nusra Front Ahrar al-Sham 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 Foreign intervention in behalf of Syrian rebels U.S.-led intervention against ISIL The 2013 battle of Tell Abyad was a military confrontation in the town of Tell Abyad between the Kurdish Front and the Democratic Union Party-affiliated People's Protection Units and Women's Protection Units against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, the al-Nusra Front (both al-Qaeda affiliates), and Ahrar al-Sham, resulting in a Kurdish defeat and the jihadist capture of the town.

ISIL and al-Nusra Front fighters arrested many Syrian Kurds on charges of Kurdish nationalism.

[1] On 20 July 2013, the Kurdish Front Brigade captured Khalaf Thiyab "Abu Musab", an al-Nusra commander and 4 other Nusra members on charges that they attempted to blow up themselves in the "People's House", the Democratic Union Party office in Tell Abyad.

[1] On 22 July, ISIL raided, looted, and demolished dozens of houses of the hundreds of Kurdish civilians who fled after their neighbourhoods were attacked by tanks and other heavy weapons.

[7] In January 2014, infighting erupted between Ahrar al-Sham and ISIL and the latter gained complete control over the Tell Abyad countryside.

[2] In February 2015, Euphrates Volcano forces advanced into the northern Raqqa countryside from both the west and the east, capturing 19 villages.