generalspeaking

Routing the Islamic State in Kobani

"One of the reasons why you're seeing more strikes there is because there is more ISIL there."
"It's hard to give an exact number, but we believe that we have killed several hundred ISIL fighters."
"These guys want to grab ground. They want territory. Kobani is a territory they want."
American Rear Admiral John Kirby

"People underestimate the power of determination. The Kurds have a cause and are prepared to die fighting for it."
Farhad Shami, Kurdish activist, Kobani

"Islamic State fighters have far more superior weapons, but they lack knowledge of the terrain."
"[Kurdish fighters know] every street, building and corner [of Kobani] and have a powerful will of resistance."
Rami Abdurrahman, director, Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Britain

There has been a barrage of 39 airstrikes around the Syrian border city of Kobani in the past several days. Airstrikes that the U.S. claims have succeeded in destroying hundreds of Islamic State of Iraq and Al-Sham jihadis. And in the process have enabled the city's Kurdish defenders to be more effective in their defence of the city, according to Pentagon spokesman, Rear Adm. Kirby.

"Hundreds" of civilians were evacuated, he said, even while increasing numbers of Islamic fighters were streaming into the city. To be met in street battles by the Kurdish fighters intent on denying them the victory of conquest and occupation they have succeeded in commanding elsewhere in the now-vast territory encompassing huge portions of both Syria and Iraq, up to now.

U.S. Command had stated the successful launch of 18 airstrikes near Kobani in the previous 24 hours, following at least 21 strikes the previous 24 hours had turned the tide in the Islamic State advance that so recently seemed inevitable. Where several days earlier Secretary of State John Kerry had informed the world that the defence of Kobani was not on the U.S. agenda, now John Allen, the retired marine general acting as President Obama's coalition coordinator states otherwise.

"There was a need for additional fire support to go in to try to relieve the defenders", he stated, describing the intensification of U.S. airstrikes in Kobani as an evidently newly-recognized humanitarian imperative. One that has failed to concern Kobani's next-door neighbours in Turkey.Where it seems evident enough that Turkish President Erdogan is content to see the two entities, ISIL and the Kurds, duke it out, doing the job he envisions having to engage with, otherwise.

And let's face it, if Mr. Erdogan's nemesis the PKK is to be destroyed, their Syrian counterparts should be as well since they fought alongside the rebellious Kurdistan Workers' Party battling for autonomy for the past thirty years' insurgency. His more immediate focus is having his warplanes bomb the PKK bases in Turkey once again; if the Islamic State demolishes the Syrian Kurds, part of his job is done for him.

Should the Islamic State prove a future nuisance to Turkey, he can turn his thoughts to them then.

In the meanwhile, thanks to the U.S. airstrikes, reluctant though they may have been, the Kurds battling for their Syrian autonomous region and the courageous pride that Kobani represents in protecting their own, have been able to retake part of the city, routing the Islamic State fighters from areas they held, leaving them now with less than they'd managed to grasp only a few days earlier. The ferocious street battles have given advantage to the Kurdish forces.

News has surfaced that the Islamic State is rumoured to have used chemical weapons against the Kurds. The Kurds have a far more effective weapon they have unleashed against the Sunni terrorist fanatics. Kurdish female fighters whose skills and dedicated courage is second to none. There is, in fact, a long tradition in the area, and also a bit of a turnabout; the famed Amazon warriors of antiquity were held to have come from Turkey.

And here are the Kurds, whose own Amazons fight alongside their men for the liberation of lands they deserve to call their own.

Labels: Conflict, Defence, Islamic State, Kurds, Syria, United States

posted by Pieface @ Friday, October 17, 2014