generalspeaking

The Lonely Courage of Syria's Kurds

"If necessary, all our female and male fighters will become Arin. The attacks by mercenaries of Daesh against Kobani will not be allowed to achieve their goals."
YPG statement

Thousands of desperate refugees have fled once again across the border from Syria into Turkey since the launch by ISIS of its offensive with tanks and heavy artillery defended by the lightly armed Kurds determined to save Kobani. On Monday the Islamic State of Iraq and Al-Sham jihadis raised their black flag temporarily over a building in Kobani and raised another on a hill near Kobani as they fired the heaviest yet barrage of artillery fire.


ISIS jihadis steadily advanced across fields in formation, well equipped wearing camouflage flak vests. Some of them have posted photographs on Internet sites showing them holding aloft the severed heads of female Kurdish fighters. Marching boldly in formation they would represent a ripe target for U.S. or allied planes, but the misfortune of the Kurds is that they fight without the intervention of foreign military intervention to save Kobani.

That vaunted European, American and Arab bombing campaign whose aim is to halt Islamic State advance has done little to achieve that aim. The Turkish army is just across the border, able to witness the ISIS advance, but though President Erdogan states his opinion that air strikes will not accomplish anything, that troops are required on the ground, he has made no move to deploy Turkish troops to aid the Kurds.

"They are using tanks, artillery and all kinds of weapons they captured in Iraq and Syria", Nasser Haj Mansour, a defence official in the Kurdish region of Syria said. Rami Abdurrahman, director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights in Britain said that on Sunday an attack against ISIS was led by a female Kurdish fighter who blew herself up, in the process killing ten terrorists. The suicide attacker was identified by the People's Protection Units as Deilar Kan Khamis.

A member of a YPG branch, the Women's Protection Units, the force is comprised of ten thousand female fighters playing a major role in the conflict against ISIS. Kurdish fighters had withdrawn from a position on the strategic hill of Mashta Nour close by Kobani, and Ms. Khanis had remained behind. As the ISIS jihadis moved in she struck at them with gunfire and grenades and eventually blew herself up allowing the Kurds to recapture the position.

Two ISIS "fighting positions" south of Kobani were said to have been destroyed by U.S. Central Command carrying out three air strikes on Sunday.  But it is the Kurds who are carrying the full brunt of countering and preventing a well-armed Islamist offensive from their goal. "Air strikes in Syria primarily are focused on choking off the ISIL ability to conduct operations in Iraq", stated Army Colonel Steve Warren, a Pentagon spokesman.

Kurdish fighters, however, plead for more support as the air strikes on ISIS were conducted in Raqqa and Deir el-Zour provinces. Cut off from supply lines and surrounded by ISIS jihadis on three sides, the Kurds are in a desperate state. On the fourth side lies the Turkish border, guarded by Turkish forces and they're focused on preventing Turkish and Syrian Kurds from joining the fight against the Islamic State.

Although Turkish authorities have insisted they plan to assist in the fight against ISIS, it's abundantly clear that Turkey is more concerned with the potential of the semi-autonomous Kurdish region on the Syrian side of the border infiltrating Turkey and encouraging Turkish Kurds to resume their war for independence. Sacrificing the Syrian Kurds to the Islamic State is no matter of concern to Turkey.

Labels: Conflict, Islamic State, Kurds, Syria, Terror

posted by Pieface @ Wednesday, October 08, 2014