BEIRUT (AP) — Syria’s Kurds have expanded their semiautonomous region in northern Syria, announcing Wednesday a new administration in a majority Sunni-Arab town they seized from the Islamic State group this summer.

The announcement falls short of declaring Tal Abyad a separate region, but prepares it for such a step if the current experiment is successful, said Kurdish official Omar Alloush, who is part of the umbrella group administering the Kurdish semi-autonomous region.

Syria’s Kurds, the country’s largest ethnic minority group long ostracized under the central government, declared a semi-autonomous administration in 2013 made up of three largely Kurdish regions, or cantons, in Afrin, Jazeera and Kobani. They refer to their overall autonomous region as Rojava, meaning “west” in Kurdish.

The Arab majority town Tal Abyad was captured by the Kurdish fighters in June, expelling the Islamic State group. The expulsion dealt a major blow to the IS group’s abilities, cutting off a vital supply line to its selfproclaimed capital, Raqqa and depriving it of a strategic avenue for cross-border smuggling.