After Kobane, Saving Aleppo

In mid-September, Islamic State militants launched an offensive to seize Kobane, a predominantly Kurdish town in Syria just across the border from Turkey. In the kobane news following weeks, Turkey closed its border, leaving thousands of civilians stuck inside the active war zone, trying to get past the tightly controlled crossings. America is putting the defence of the Iraqi government and the destruction of Islamic State's command structures ahead of defending the embattled Kurdish city of Kobani, a leading member of the Obama administration has admitted. Tony Blinkin, US Deputy National Security Advisor, said on a visit to London that the focus of the American-led coalition was "in the first instance in Iraq". The fight against Isis does not seem to be going too well in Iraq either. AP has this report on growing pubic disgruntlement at the Iraqi government's military campaign against Isis. The west is pinning much on the new prime minister, Haider al-Abadi, to wage a more effective campaign against the jihadists. Erdogan said more than 200,000 people have fled the fighting in and around Kobani in recent weeks. Their flight is among the largest single exoduses of the three-year Syrian conflict.

Islamic State group jihadists were in control Thursday of more than one-third of the Syrian border town of Kobane after pushing back its Kurdish defenders, a monitoring group said. In an indication of the tensions that remain between Washington and and Ankara on how to deal with the Islamic State group, Erdogan said he could not understand why Kobane was so strategic for the United States. Turkish soldiers stand guard as protesters run away from tear gas during a pro-Kurdish demonstration in solidarity with the people of Kobani, near the Mursitpinar border crossing on the Turkish-Syrian border, kobane news Oct. 7, 2014. Newly arrived Syrian Kurdish refugees walk with their belongings after crossing into Turkey from the Syrian border town Kobani, near the southeastern Turkish town of Suruc, Oct. 7, 2014. On Friday, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper presented a motion before the House of Commons about the possibility of his nation taking part in military operations against ISIS in Iraq, including airstrikes. The lower house of Parliament is debating the issue. Cantlie, a photojournalist who also wrote several articles for major British newspapers, was kidnapped in November 2012 along with American journalist James Foley. Abadi's talks in Iran are part of his bid "to unite the efforts of the region and the world to help Iraq in its war against the terrorist group," his office said. This is the horrific reality described by the Kurds who have managed to flee into Turkey from Kobane, where the barbaric fanatics hold sway, despite coalition air strikes. Terrified civilians are stuck in the town and in a no-man's land between the outskirts and the border, which is closed to them. Furthermore, being a border city with Suruc of Sanliurfa province of Turkey, seizing Kobane will also allow ISIS to control the Mursitpinar Border Gate with Turkey as well. It is well known that ISIS gives specific importance to border gates especially for trade, easy crossing for fighters and logistics, the treatment of injured fighters etc. In this regard, it is increasingly likely that ISIS will plan attacks on other border crossings controlled by the Kurds like Serekaniye and Til Kocer, and crossings controlled by rival Islamist groups in Azaz. Since the start of the war in Syria in early 2011, the number of people fleeing the country has swelled to more than 3 million - half of them children. But the US has accepted only a miniscule few - just 36 in 2013. The US - which traditionally accepts more refugees than any other country- has resettled 191 Syrian refugees since March 2011, although the vast majority of these applied for resettlement before the conflict broke out, a State Department spokesperson said in an email. Nassan's comments came a day after the Pentagon spokesman said Kobani remains under threat of falling to the ISIS fighters Rear Adm. John Kirby said two weeks of airstrikes have killed hundreds of ISIS fighters, and have stiffened Kobani's defenders. This is not true. The US is NOT helping, and if anyone is helping the Syrian Kurds it is Iran, which supports the embattled Syrian government.