Islamic State Advance On Kobani Halted As Peshmerga Join Fight

Islamic State Advance On Kobani Halted As Peshmerga Join Fight Survivors of the fighting in Kobani have spoken of the horrors they witnessed as Isis militants took control of parts of the town from Kurdish forces. Over the past few weeks, the US has stepped up its airstrike campaign in Kobani in an attempt to aid Syrian Kurds attempting to prevent the town from falling to ISIS, which is also known as the Islamic kobane news State or ISIL. The US has also boosted the Kurdish forces fighting ISIS militants in the key town on the Syria-Turkey border, resupplying them with weapons, ammunition , and medical supplies. Turkey also has met with PYD leader Salih Muslim on several occasions, including last week when it tried to wring a host of concessions from the Syrian Kurds in exchange for Turkish support to the besieged town. As a whole, the demands were not anything PYD leader Muslim would or could never implement - including abdicating his group's autonomy, breaking relations with the PKK, fighting Assad and supporting his ouster and sharing power with other Syrian Kurdish factions that are weak and have tried to undermine the PYD. After a few days Masum said, ‘Mama, I can't stay at home any more. In Kobane they are waiting to be killed. They are killing our honour.'” A few hours later he was found murdered. While attention is focused on Kobane, Isis has also been threatening to overrun Iraq's largest province, Anbar, in what would be a major victory for the jihadists and a blow to the US-led coalition fighting the group. Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. Meanwhile, Greenhill reports that the latest invention” of the Islamic State in the region is the establishment of Jihadi Snatch Squads” which are described as ISIS fighters lying in wait in Turkey to grab unsuspecting Westerners kobane news as hostages. The captives are then sent to Syria where they are confronted by Jihadi John” who delights in beheading innocent victims such as Alan Henning and the other highly publicized social media decapitations. Similarly, the Turkish government clearly wanted to see Kobanê defeated by IS, to send a brutal lesson to the Kurdish movement in Turkey. Many people saw TV images of dozens of Turkish tanks lined up at the Turkish-Syrian border, while the fighting was raging in Kobanê just a few miles away. Of course, most Kurds have been right in rejecting any intervention of the Turkish army in the area, as this would only be to satisfy the thirst of power and hegemony of the Turkish ruling elite, certainly not the rights of the local people. UN Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura warned earlier this month that about 12,000 civilians remained in and around Kobane and risked massacre” if the militants cut off the border. Turkey is turning a deaf ear to pressure to take a more proactive stance in the fight against IS, with Western diplomats repeatedly calling for the NATO member to take a more active role in the resistance. The Iraqi capital Baghdad has also seen a rise in the number of bomb attacks in the past week. Muhammad Hamidur Rahman expressed similar views. I hate it when people say these mujahideens r the extremist sic, at least they are not sitting behind closed doors and watching Islam fade away,” he tweeted. Turkish foreign minister Mevlüt Çavusoğlu said that the decision to allow the peshmerga to pass through its territory was in line with a wider regional effort to fend off Isis. Staffan de Mistura issued the demand for concrete action” on Tuesday, after Turkey's president declared that Kobani is on the brink of being captured. The attack has forced more than 200,000 people to flee, one of the largest single exoduses of the three-year Syrian conflict. A resident of Kobani who escaped to Turkey told the Guardian on Tuesday that Kurdish fighters there have the upper hand against Isis.

It is not clear how many Kurds are aiding the estimated 3,000 Islamic State militants in the Kobani area - and fighting against their own Kurdish brethren - but activists say they are playing a major role in the 7-week-old kobane news conflict near the Turkish border. A top military commander for the extremists in the town is an Iraqi Kurd, known by the nom de guerre of Abu Khattab al-Kurdi, helping them in the battle against fellow Kurds.