generalspeaking

Neighbourly Rites

"Indications are that air strikes have slowed the [ISIS advance]."
"However, the security situation on the ground there remains fluid, with ISIL attempting to gain territory and the Kurdish militia continuing to hold out."
U.S. Air Force statement

"We certainly do not want the town to fall."
"At the same time, our capacity to prevent that town from falling is limited by the fact that air strikes can only do so much."
White House spokesman

Even while the Syrian Kurds have somehow held out, preventing the Islamic State jihadists from their goal of completely taking Kobani, the Kurdish city on the border of Turkey, their outmatched weapons leaving them at a disadvantage, it seemed they would ultimately fail. The Islamic State terrorists had taken possession of advanced American weapons left to them by the vacating Iraqi armed forces in June, when Mosul was taken.

Now, the U.S. Air Force announced its heaviest bombardment in support of Kurdish forces in southern Syria, enabling the Kurds to reclaim a hill nearby the town from which an Islamic State of Iraq and Al-Sham flag had flown as a symbol of the town eventually surrendering to the marauding belligerents intent on slaughtering the inhabitants. Islamic State fighters entered the town from the south and east, fighting street-by-street battles.

Over the two weeks that Kobani had been under siege, Islamic State had been enabled to take possession of at least one-third of the town. A lack of carefully detailed information of ISIS positions on the ground hampered the U.S. in pinpointing airstrikes where they would do the most harm to Islamic State and give the most advantage to the courageous Kurds battling for their lives. Monday's 21 hits represented a blow to ISIS, hitting staging areas, bases and compounds as well as vehicles.


When a strike hit Tal Shair to the west of Kobani, Kurdish fighters charged the hill and brought down the black ISIS flag, visible from Turkey. But a matter of great relief  to the Kurds who fled in panic to cross the border who have gathered at the border to witness the siege, and who can now see that the hated flag has been removed. Giving them hope that the Islamic State will be defeated in their intent, and they will be able to return to their homes.

Turkish authorities continue to refuse Turkish air bases to be used by U.S. and coalition planes. Nor will it do anything but restrict the movement of Turkish Kurds attempting to join Syrian Kurds across the border. The Kurds had additional reason for complaints, when a consignment of arms sent to aid them by the Kurdish autonomous regional government in Iraq was held up in northeastern Syria when Turkish authorities refused to permit them use of the sole route to get the arms into Kobani.

Kurds who managed to escape Kobani have tales to tell of how their property was stolen under their eyes by Arab neighbours sympathetic to ISIS. Many of the refugees described the neighbours they had once regarded as "brothers" volunteering to become local informants and fighters as well for ISIS forces sweeping through village after village.

"They started acting as guides to ISIL, saying this one is Kurdish, that village is Kurdish, that is the home of a YPG [Kurdish militia] fighter", Mostafa Bakr, a blacksmith from Nour Ali, a village near Kobani, explained. "They want to make the area purely Arab."

Labels: Conflict, Iraq, Islamic State, Syria, Turkey

posted by Pieface @ Thursday, October 16, 2014