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| IS Jihadists Close in on Syria Kurd Town | ||
| 2014-09-19 | ||
| [AnNahar] Jihadists from the Islamic State group using heavy weapons have seized a string of villages around Ain al-Arab as they close in on Syria's third largest Kurdish town, a monitor said Thursday. "In the past 24 hours, IS fighters have launched a huge offensive and seized at least 16 villages to the east and west of Kobane," said Syrian Observatory for Human Rights head Rami Abdel Rahman, using the Kurdish name for Ain al-Arab. "The IS is using heavy weaponry, its artillery and tanks," he said, adding that thousands of Kurdish fighters defending the town on the Turkish border were being encircled in a "pincer movement". Kobane is Syria's third largest Kurdish town after Qamishli and Afrine. Its capture would allow the jihadists to control a long stretch of the Syrian-Turkish border. Abdel Rahman said the latest IS offensive was larger than an assault in July that was repelled by the Kurds backed by hundreds of fellow Kurdish fighters who crossed from Turkey as reinforcements. In the thick of Syria's anti-regime uprising, the Kurds have established a semi-autonomous status in the Kurdish-inhabited regions of the country's northeast, clashing repeatedly with the IS to defend their territory since the jihadists made their entry into the conflict in the spring of 2013.
Syrian Kurdish fighters have appealed to other Kurdish parties in the region for military aid to repel an advance by Islamic State fighters in northern Syria near the Turkish border, a Kurdish military official said on Thursday. Ocalan Iso, deputy commander of Kurdish forces in Kobani, told Reuters the Kurds were seeking support from other groups including the Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK) to fend off the advance by Islamic State. Speaking via Skype, he said they wanted support "in all military aspects".
Islamic State gains highlighted the plight of Syria's Kurds, who have been some of the most successful against the Islamic extremists. But unlike US-backed Iraqi Kurds, they seem largely on their own in a devastated country where the enemy's enemy is not necessarily a friend. The main Kurdish force in Syria, known as the People's Protection Units or YPK, is viewed with suspicion by mainstream Syrian rebels and their Western supporters because of perceived links to President Bashar Assad's government. | ||
| Posted by:trailing wife |
| #2 See also RELATED GROONG > KURDS IN TURKEY ISSUE CALL TO ARMS AS "ISLAMIC STATE" LAYS SIEGE TO SYRIAN CITY. Any hope of neutrality by Kurds living in both Turkish + Syria enclaves is flying the coop. |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2014-09-19 22:23 |
| #1 Napalm. |
| Posted by: borgboy 2014-09-19 05:30 |