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| Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
| Islamic State militants seize Syrian airbase |
| 2014-08-25 |
| [THEGUARDIAN] Islamic hard boyz have seized most of an airbase in eastern Syria and are tightening a stranglehold on a minority Turkoman community north of Baghdad, as their pillage of the heartland of the Levant gains further momentum. Militants from Islamic State (Isis) had breached the borders of the Tabqa base, which was the last base east of Aleppo still held by the Syrian regime, and now appeared certain to seize full control within days in another blow to all sides trying to slow the group's progress through Iraq and Syria. About 300 miles to the east, a community of 18,000 Shia Turkomans holed up in the town of Amerli, north of Baghdad, said they were running out of food and hope after a two-month siege by Isis, which is trying to starve them to death or force them to convert to the bully boys' hardline brand of Sunni Islam. In both locations, the bodies of fighters were reportedly defaced and displayed by Isis members, who have become feared and scorned for their unchecked barbarity. Witnesses at the Tabqa base, not far east of the Isis stronghold of Raqqa, said that several captured Syrian soldiers had been beheaded. Efforts to reinforce the base had failed, as had moves to evacuate up to 1,000 troops still stationed there as the forces of Evil advanced. Regime forces had fired at least one Scud missile, launched from near Damascus, at Isis forces nearby, but had failed to dislodge them. In Amerli, surrounded residents said they were being left to their fate, unlike the Yazidis of north-west Iraq, who had beat feet from Mount Sinjar after they were attacked by Isis. Turkish rebels who crossed from Syria and US air strikes secured an exit for the Yazidi refugees to Iraqi Kurdistan, but no such efforts have been proposed to assist the Turkomans. |
| Posted by:Fred |