Wednesday, 8 October 2014

Kobane: IS and Syria Kurds in fierce gun battles


Kurdish fighters are engaged in fierce gun battles with Islamic State (IS) in the Syrian border town of Kobane, as US-led coalition air strikes continue.
A BBC correspondent near the fighting says dozens of weapons are firing, with regular grenade explosions.
In its latest report, the US Central Command said six air strikes had destroyed IS weaponry around Kobane.
The UN envoy for Syria has urged the international community to act now to prevent IS from seizing the key town.
Staffan de Mistura told the BBC that the fall of Kobane would be "a massacre and a humanitarian tragedy".
Seizing the entire town would give the IS jihadists full control of a long stretch of the Syrian-Turkish border, which has been a primary route for foreign fighters getting into Syria, as well as allowing IS to traffic oil from oilfields it has captured.
Three weeks of fighting over Kobane has cost the lives of 400 people, and forced more than 160,000 Syrians to flee across the border to Turkey.

Two days after fighters from Islamic State entered Kobane, a battle is raging for the town's eastern streets.
We reached the border, within a few hundred yards of the fighting, and I have rarely heard anything quite like it.
At times, it seems dozens of weapons are firing at once, and there are regular grenade explosions too. Thick black smoke is rising from buildings on fire.
US-led coalition air strikes have been concentrated on the western reaches of the city, where the IS advance seems to have been halted.
Jets can still be heard flying overhead.
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'Retreat' IS fighters are trying to retake areas in the east that they have lost control of as a result of coalition air strikes, says the head of the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group.
Rami Abdel Rahman, quoted by AFP, said IS had earlier retreated from parts of the eastern and south-western edges of the town and was no longer present on the western front.
Our correspondent says Kurdish fighters feel emboldened a day after witnessing coalition air strikes on Kobane that brought the IS advance to a halt.
Armed men, believed to be IS, in Kobane, 8 Oct Armed men, believed to be Islamic State fighters, are seen in Kobane's streets
Turkish armed forces, 8 Oct Turkish armed forces patrol the border but have not crossed
Suspected IS militants and Turkish forces, 8 Oct An image showing how close suspected IS militants (background) are to the Turkish forces
Newly arrived Syrian Kurdish refugees wait with their belongings after crossing into Turkey from the Syrian border town Kobani on 7 October 2014 More than 160,000 Syrians have fled three weeks of fighting in Kobane
The US Central Command listed the damage done by six coalition air strikes south and south-west of Kobane over Tuesday and Wednesday.
It said an armoured personnel carrier, four "armed vehicles" and two artillery pieces were destroyed.
There were three further air strikes on IS in other parts of Syria and five in Iraq.
Turkey's complicated relationship with the Kurds explained
Correspondents reported at least four more air strikes around Kobane on Wednesday afternoon.
A senior official in Kobane, Idriss Nassan, told Reuters news agency the IS militants had suffered "their biggest retreat since their entry into the city".
"They are now outside the entrances of the city of Kobane. The shelling and bombardment was very effective and as a result of it, IS have been pushed from many positions."
Chart of air strikes in Iraq and Syria
However, the leader of the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Unity Party (PYD) said the situation remained very serious, with fighters from its armed wing, the Popular Protection Units (YPG), under intense pressure.
"There is heavy fighting going on by YPG forces and they're trying to defend the civilians," Salih Muslim said. "There is a very large operation against them."
In New York, the UN's special envoy for Syria said the Syrian Kurds had defended Kobane with great courage and the international community should now take concrete action to support them.
Map of Kobane showing IS advances
Kurds have protested over Turkey's role, including here in Istanbul, 8 Oct Kurds have protested over Turkey's role, including here in Istanbul
Meanwhile, a senior US official told the New York Times that "there's growing angst about Turkey dragging its feet to act to prevent a massacre less than a mile from its border".
"After all the fulminating about Syria's humanitarian catastrophe, they're inventing reasons not to act to avoid another catastrophe," the official said.
Last week Turkey's parliament authorised military action against the jihadists in Iraq and Syria, but so far no action has been taken.
Turkey has come under increasing pressure to do more to help the Kurdish forces fighting in Kobane.
At least 18 people have been killed in Kurdish protests in Turkey over the lack of Turkish military support.
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What are Turkey's demands and can they be met?
  • To set up a buffer zone on the Turkish border inside Syria, enforced by a no-fly zone to ensure security and ease the refugee influx into Turkey - analysts say this is unlikely as it would require warplanes to disable the Syrian government's air defence system
  • Air strikes to target the forces of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad - the US state department insists that air strikes are to remain focused on Islamic State alone
Turkey's fear of a reignited Kurdish flame
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Map
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Are you in or near Kobane? Get in contact by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.
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