KOBANE: KURDISH LAST STAND...

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THE WOMEN OF KOBANI
Fleeing the Islamic State militants, they’ve left behind not only their homes in Syria, but also their husbands and sons who have stayed to fight.

SHASDAR AREF WOKE UP NEXT TO HER HUSBAND, MAZLOM IBRAHIM, AND THREE CHILDREN ON FRIDAY MORNING. It was the family's eighth day in a gray, plastic tent with only a plastic sheet covering the gravel floor. They have stayed here in this empty lot turned refugee camp since crossing the border into Turkey after fleeing their village in Syria more than two weeks ago. Friday was also the day Aref’s husband disappeared.

The young family and their neighbors -- who, like them, are Syrian Kurds -- have settled into the monotony of their new daily routine as refugees. They drink tea in the shade of roughly 100 tents just like theirs in an empty lot in Suruç, a medium-sized town a little over three miles into Turkey from the Syrian border.

That morning Aref had taken her children to use the bathroom -- a half-completed building of bare concrete and protruding steel hastily outfitted with portable toilets for the influx from Kobani. When they returned to their tent, Ibrahim, Aref’s husband of five years, was gone. He’d gone back to fight for Kobani, their home, and what is now the latest target of the Islamic State’s brutal sweep across the region.

Ibrahim would join an unknown number of fighters defending the city with People’s Protection Units (commonly known as the YPG) -- the armed wing of the Kurdish Supreme Committee of Syrian Kurdistan. They are vastly outgunned and ill equipped to fend off the IS offensive, and their calls for international assistance (for weapons) have so far gone unheeded.

Aref is among the countless thousands of women who have crossed into Turkey with only what little they could carry. Many have waited weeks on the Syrian side of the border. After finally reaching the bottlenecked border gate, they’re funneled through to the Turkish side, where they undergo a series of health and security checks before being deposited onto a dusty plain where they then must wait for trucks to collect them. Where they trucks will deliver them, however, is unknown.

The women and children, like Aref and her sons, sit with piles of white sacks filled with clothes and other necessities. Many are overcome by the hasty exodus they were forced to make from Kobani and all the uncertainty that awaits, unsure whether they’ll ever see their homes, or their men -- their boys -- again.

 

[Alienoz_TR]

Ayn Al Arab.

 

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Intensified U.S. airstrikes keep Kobane from falling to Islamic State militants



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After three weeks of pitched battles between the Islamic State and Kurdish fighters, the Syrian border town of Kobane is about to fall to the Islamist militants. (Reuters)
By Liz Sly and Brian Murphy October 8 at 5:40 AM
ANTAKYA, Turkey — The U.S.-led coalition stepped up airstrikes around the Syrian border town of Kobane on Tuesday after Turkey appealed for help, enabling Kurdish fighters to reverse the advance of Islamic State militants for the first time since the extremists launched their assault about three weeks ago.

The strikes followed the request by Turkey for intensified U.S. efforts to prevent the predominantly Kurdish town, known as Ayn al-Arab in Arabic, from falling to the Islamic State, Turkish officials said. Turkey has lined up tanks and troops within view of the Syrian Kurdish fighters defending Kobane but has not sought to intervene — for a tangle of reasons bound up with its complicated relationship with Kurds and its doubts about the goals of the international coalition fighting the extremists.

Turkey insisted, however, that it does not want the town to fall, and a senior official said Ankara asked the United States on Monday to escalate strikes.

“Turkey will not be content with the fall of Kobane into the hands of terrorist organizations,” Deputy Prime Minister Yalcin Akdogan said in a statement Tuesday.

“Our government and related institutions have underlined the necessity to intensify aerial bombings in a more active and effective way through contacts with U.S. officials until late into yesterday night,” the statement added.

alternative acronym for the Islamic State.

Meanwhile, in Baghdad, officials said Wednesday that Islamic State militants downed an Iraqi military helicopter near the oil refinery town of Baiji, killing the two pilots on board.

A military aviation official told the Associated Press that the militants used a shoulder-fired missile to take down the helicopter. Baiji, some 130 miles north of Baghdad, is home to Iraq’s largest oil refinery. This is the second Iraqi military helicopter shot down over Baiji in a week.

Turkey has been widely criticized for its perceived inaction, but many Syrian Kurds also have accused the United States of neglecting their plight, contrasting the Islamic State’s unchecked advance on Kobane with the swift response to the group’s gains against Kurds in Iraq in the summer.

The U.S. Central Command on Tuesday reported five strikes around Kobane, doubling the number carried out since the Islamic State offensive against the town began. The strikes destroyed three Islamic State vehicles and an antiaircraft artillery piece, damaged a tank and took out a “unit,” a Central Command statement said.

The air attacks came just as the Islamic State launched a push into the center of the town, an advance that at first appeared to succeed, said Kurdish activist Mustafa Abdi, speaking from the adjoining Turkish town of Suruc. Islamic State fighters had reached the center of Kobane by mid-morning, he said, but one of the airstrikes hit a convoy of reinforcements. It was forced to turn back, and the advancing fighters lost momentum.

By nightfall, a Kurdish force known as the People’s Protection Units had pushed the militants almost back to the position from which they had begun their attack. “Today is the first day the strikes were effective,” Abdi said. “These airstrikes are neutralizing their heavy weapons.”

Pro-Kurdish protests took place across Turkey and elsewhere in Europe over the Islamic State’s attempt to take over the Kurdish town of Kobane in northern Syria. (Divya Jeswani Verma/The Washington Post)
He said that more than 20 Kurdish fighters were killed and that the bodies of at least 50 militants were strewn in the streets. The claims could not be independently verified.

The Islamic State fighters responded to their setback with a barrage of artillery fire against the town, which Kurdish activists say has been almost entirely emptied of civilians and is being defended by about 3,000 fighters confronting up to 10,000 militants.

Kobane is still at risk, said Ibrahim Kader, another activist, urging continued strikes. “We do not have enough ammunition to last for much longer,” he said.

Kobane has little strategic value, and the Islamic State already controls several towns along the Turkish border. But the militant assault coincided with the extension of the U.S.-led air campaign from Iraq to Syria last month, putting the spotlight on the Islamic State’s advances in Syria — and on Turkey’s absence from the coalition formed to fight the group.

After warning that Kobane was “about to fall,” Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan spelled out his nation’s conditions for joining the coalition, including the creation of a no-fly zone over portions of northern Syria — which could embroil the coalition in a fight with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, as well.

“I am telling the West — dropping bombs from the air will not provide a solution,” Erdogan told a crowd of Syrians in the southern Turkish city of Gaziantep, whose population has swelled because of the influx of more than 1.5 million refugees into the country. More than 160,000 have arrivedsince the battle for Kobane began.

“The terror will not be over . . . unless there is cooperation for a ground operation,” Erdogan said Tuesday.


He also said it was crucial for “the moderate opposition in Syria and Iraq to be trained and equipped.” The Obama administration also has proposed similar measures but remains slow to act because of worries of al-Qaedainspired groups among the rebel ranks.

Underscoring the domestic ramifications of Turkey’s inaction, Kurds have been staging protests across the country and in some European cities demanding stronger measures to protect Kobane. In Varto, a town in eastern Turkey, a demonstrator was killed during clashes with security forces, news reports said.

 

[Alienoz_TR]

You do portray the town of Ayn Al Arab purely a Kurdish town. Contrary, town is home not only to Kurds, but also to Turkmens, Arabs and Assyrians.

 

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Kurds across Europe hold protests calling for more help for Kobani
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• Kurds unleash anger as Turkey fails to intervene against ISIL
  

Kurdish communities across Europe have been out on the streets calling for more military support for the Syrian town of Kobani, under assault by ISIL militants.

Protesters blocked railway lines in Hamburg in Germany, just one of many demonstrations that were mostly peaceful.

There is growing anger over the lack of military and humanitarian support for the Kurdish town in Syria, just over the border from Turkey.

The Kurds in Turkey, and Syrian-Kurds who have fled the fighting, are watching in horror as ISIL appears to be about to take control.

Kurd demonstrations also took place in other countries including the Netherlands, Belgium, the UK, Switzerland and France.

 

[Jaanbaz]

Best of luck to Kurds. They are trying their best with out dated weapons and limited ammunition.

Biji Kurdistan.

 

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[xenon54 out]

pkk supporters logic: Isis atacking Kobane, lets attack Turks who provide shelter to 200'000 Kurds from Syria...

 

[al-Hasani]

It's called Ayn al-Arab. It's native inhabitants are Arabs and other ancient Semitic people such as Assyrians and Chaldeans. Kurds are not native to those lands but migrants from Northwestern Iran or wherever they came from.

Ayn al-Arab is a mixed city. It's not a Kurdish city. Let's get that straight first my dear stateless Berbarian.

 

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Turkey request from kurds to intervene

 

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Syria: Battle of Kobané is "terrifying"
By LEXPRESS.fr , published10/07/2014 at 21:57Updated at 22:02

Fighting continued Tuesday in Kobané Kurdish city besieged by jihadists of IE. Neither the injunctions of the UN, nor the coalition strikes or statements of Erdogan, seem able to stop his fall.

Kobané was still the scene of fierce fighting between Kurdish forcesand the jihadists of the Islamic State on Tuesday night, 24 hours after they entered the city. And despite the recent orders of the UN, or the statements of Turkish President Erdogan for a ground intervention, nothing seems to prevent the fall of the Third Kurdish city in Syria. The fate of Kobané hopeless, distant few kilometers from Turkey, has also burned up the Turkish streets, where at least three people died in clashes between police and pro-Kurdish demonstrators. Washington his side described as "terrifying" battle Kobané.

The strikes continue
Three further strikes were conducted in the afternoon on Tuesday, all outside Kobané on positions of the IU, said the Syrian Observatory of Human Rights (OSDH). Each triggered a "bang" and then thick black smoke, according to AFP reporters stationed at the border, who heard the deafening roar of aircraft flying over the city. They were greeted by applause and cheers of tens of Kurdish civilians gathered on the Turkish side to follow the progress of the fighting. Inside the city, Kurdish fighters have managed to reduce the jihadists to the districts of the east, through which they entered Monday night, according to OSDH.

A "fierce resistance"
Kobané became the scene of "urban guerrilla warfare", summarized the director of the organization, Rami Abdel Rahman, whose NGO has reported more than 400 people, the vast majority of combatants on both sides, from the offensive began on September 16 jihadist. "YPG (Protection Units of the Kurdish people) led a fierce resistance," said Ozgur Amed, a Kurdish journalist close to the front line. "Our morale is holding. We just afraid of the deteriorating humanitarian situation."

It's already "too late"
"At this stage it is too late to save Kobané. This advanced IR shows that the campaign of strikes by the coalition does not reach its goal of destroying the military capabilities of the organization," Mario Abou tip Zeid, an analyst at the Center for American research Carnegie Beirut. If they managed to completely conquer Kobané, jihadists would ensure seamless control of a long strip of territory on the Syrian-Turkish border. Iran on Tuesday denounced "the passivity of the international community", and called for support for the Syrian government against "terrorists"

 

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WORLD SECURITY WATCH TERRORISM & SECURITY
Syrian Kurds give women grenades in last-ditch defense against Islamic State

Islamic State forces are trying to oust the Kurdish defenders of Kobane, a Syrian town on the border with Turkey. News agencies have posted photographs showing the militants apparently raising their flag in the town, which Turkey had vowed to defend.

By Arthur Bright, Staff writer OCTOBER 6, 2014

• 

Fighting around Kobane is turning increasingly desperate, as the forces of the self-declared Islamic State threaten to overrun the Syrian border town's Kurdish defenders.

Syrian Kurdish official Idris Nahsen told Agence France-Presse that IS forces are within a kilometer of the town to the south, but their latest attempt to advance had been repulsed by Kurdish forces. Although airstrikes by US-led coalition forces had helped slow the IS advance on Saturday, Mr. Nahsen said airstrikes alone would not be enough to break the siege on Kobane.

NBC News reports that the situation is becoming desperate in Kobane, where civilians of all ages are being recruited to help with the town's defense.

"Everybody is fighting in Kobani. There are women my age who have been given hand grenades to throw," said 63-year-old Alife Ali, as she waited in the hospital, a small child in her arms. "Our people dug a [16 feet] deep and wide ditch around the town to protect it. We will fight to the last person." Hassan waited anxiously outside a room for a 20-year-old female relative, wounded in the fighting. "She took up arms," he said. "They gave her a gun though she had no experience." His mother, sitting next to him, said of ISIS: "God curse them. They are worse than monsters. Look at what they did to our people."

According to the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a female suicide bomber was among those who engaged IS forces, killing herself at an IS post on Sunday. The Observatory told AFP that is was the first time that such a tactic has been used by Kurdish fighters against the Islamic militants. Nahsen confirmed to AFP that the bombing had taken place, though he did not say whether it would be repeated. "I don't know. It is related to the situation. We don't have this strategy," he said.

The BBC reports that the Kurds in Kobane areangry that they have yet to receive help from Turkey, which promised last week that it would prevent the town from falling to the IS advance. Turkey has yet to act beyond patrolling the border, however. Turkish forces did deploy tear gas Monday against crowds of observers and reporters who had gathered along the border. The BBC's Paul Adams reports that one of the gas canisters shattered their vehicle's rear windshield and set the van on fire briefly.

The Christian Science Monitor reported last week that Turkey's apparent reluctance to act may stem from fears of fueling a resurgence of Kurdish separatism, which it has long tried to suppress. The Monitor notes that the Turkish government has been negotiating a peace deal with the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), an outlawed Kurdish militant group, but that deal is now in jeopardy.

In return for expanded freedoms, the government wants the PKK to lay down its arms. But the strife in Kobane could put those talks at risk. Last week Murat Karayilan, a high-ranking commander in the PKK, told a Kurdish TV station that peace negotiations with the Turkish government were "finished."

“The cease-fire and the peace process is in a very fragile situation,” Ertugrul Kurkcu, a member of Parliament for the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party, the political affiliate of the PKK, tells The Christian Science Monitor.

“The state of the cease-fire is not only determined by the situation in Turkey, but the situation in the entire Kurdish nation,” Mr. Kurkcu says, alluding to the Kurdish-populated region of Syria, referred to by Kurds as Rojava.

Cenk Sidar, CEO of Sidar Global Partners, a Turkey-focused political and strategic risk consultancy firm, told the Monitor that “The perception that the Turks weren’t quickly willing to help the Kurds in Kobane has created a trauma in Kurdish minds and it will be very hard to restore trust.” If Kobane falls to IS forces, Mr. Sidar said, "The peace process will be over."

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[flamer84]

How evil of the Turks not wanting to get involeved in a war for the sake of the same terrorist organisation that killed some 6k Turkish soldiers/policemen/public officials up to some few years ago.

As usual,Western public opinion is grossly misinformed ,presenting the Kurds as some secular champions of democracy.The same Kurds who sat idly watching while the SAA was butchered by jihadists just because they were not the ones attacked and were hoping for their own state on the back of beheaded Syrian soldiers.The same Kurds who sat by and watched,even rushed to grab some land as the Iraqi Army was routed by ISIS.The same Kurds who laughed at the Iraqis ,called them cowards and boasted about their military prowess.

Last but not least ,the same Kurds that some 90-100 years ago were at the forefront of massacres against Assyrians and other Christians in the ME,killing them were they stood,raping their women."God doesn't hit you with a bat" Kurds-remember that...it may take 100 years but somebody always pays for something,be those the sins of the fathers.What the Kurds were doing to Assyrians in the Nineveh plains and other locations some 100 years ago it's being done to them.Karma people,karma...now let them riot in Turkey untill Turkey gets fed up and goes hardline on their asses.

 

[Alienoz_TR]

@flamer84

Danke.