|
Kobani defenders hold out as Iraq Kurds vote on reinforcements
[ARABNEWS] Kurdish fighters defending Syria's border town of Kobani held out against the Islamic State...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allaharound with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not reallyMoslems.... group Wednesday, anxious for relief as Iraq's Kurdish parliament was set to vote on sending reinforcements. Backed by air strikes from a US-led coalition, the Kurds have been defending the town on the Turkish border against a fierce IS offensive for more than a month. After initially losing ground to the jihadists the Kurds have fought back hard, with the US military saying Tuesday they had halted the IS advance and remained in control of most of Kobani. They were given a boost this week by the first US air drop of weapons and other supplies, though one of the parachuted crates was reported to have fallen into IS hands. Now local Kurds say they need reinforcements, after Turkey announced Monday it would allow Kurdish fighters from Iraq to travel to the town, which has become a crucial symbolic battleground in the fight against IS. A senior politician in Iraq's Kurdish regional parliament told AFP it would vote later Wednesday on deploying its peshmerga forces to the battle for Kobani. "Today, the Kurdistan parliament will hold a session... to give the authorization and allow the president of the region to move forces to the town of Kobani" in Syria, Omid Khoshnaw, the head of the Kurdistan Democratic Party's parliamentary bloc, told AFP. Kurdish forces have played a leading role in northern Iraq in combatting IS, which has seized large parts of the country and neighboring Syria, declaring an Islamic "caliphate" in areas under its control. Posted by: Fred 2014-10-23 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=402578 |