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ISIS Moves Into Syrian Kurdish Enclave on Turkish Border Slaughter Is Feared as ISIS Nears Turkish Border
(about 5 hours later)
ISTANBUL — Islamic State militants pushed on Monday into the eastern edge of the Syrian Kurdish town of Kobani on the Turkish border, after sustained shelling that drove back the Kurdish fighters and Syrian insurgents fighting alongside them, killing 16, Kurdish fighters and activists said. ISTANBUL — Islamic State militants pushed on Monday into the eastern edge of the Syrian Kurdish town of Kobani on the Turkish border, after sustained shelling that drove back the Kurdish fighters and Syrian insurgents fighting alongside them, killing 16 and raising fears of a massacre of civilians, Kurdish fighters and activists said.
The Kurdish militants have been hanging on as Islamic State militants have advanced with heavy weapons in a three-week assault. Kurdish women have joined the battle, and one, Kurdish and Syrian activists say, blew herself up with a grenade over the weekend rather than be captured. Anwar Muslim, a coordinator in Kobani for the People’s Protection Committees, a Kurdish militant group known as the Y.P.G., said Monday night that 12,000 civilians were trapped inside the town. He said that his group was running out of heavy ammunition, and with Islamic State militants close by the population was in constant fear of car bombs or suicide bombers.
Shells have sailed across the Turkish border several times in recent days, and on Monday a black Islamic State flag appeared to be flying from one of the taller buildings in the town of Kobani or Ain al-Arab in Arabic, the main settlement in a group of Kurdish farming villages that has been under assault since mid-September. Rooz Bahjat, who identified himself as a senior security official with the Kurdistan Regional Government in Iraq, said that as many as 9,000 Islamic State fighters were closing in on the area, leaving other fronts in eastern and northern Syria and even as far away as Iraq to attack what he called “a bastion of democracy and secularism” in Kobani, which has given shelter to internally displaced Syrians from a wide range of ethnic groups.
Video from the front lines in recent days has shown fighters for the Islamic State, also known by the acronyms ISIS and ISIL, advancing across fields in formation, well equipped in camouflage flak vests. Some militants have posted pictures of themselves holding the severed heads of what they say are female Kurdish fighters. “The whole might of ISIS right now is turned onto Kobani,” he said.
His information could not be independently verified, but Kurdish officials have been warning for days that without more military aid, Kobani will fall. And Islamic State fighters in Raqqa and Aleppo Provinces have said in recent interviews that they were redeploying toward Kobani after having faced United States-led airstrikes in their strongholds elsewhere in Syria.
The Kurdish militants have been hanging on as fighters from the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, have advanced with heavy weapons in a three-week assault. Kurdish women have joined the battle, and one, Kurdish and Syrian activists say, blew herself up with a grenade over the weekend rather than be captured.
Shells have sailed across the Turkish border several times in recent days, and on Monday a black Islamic State flag appeared to be flying from one of the taller buildings in Kobani, or Ayn al-Arab as it is known in Arabic, the main settlement in a group of Kurdish farming villages that has been under assault since mid-September.
Video from the front lines in recent days has shown fighters for the Islamic State advancing across fields in formation, well equipped in camouflage flak vests. Some militants have posted pictures of themselves holding the severed heads of what they say are female Kurdish fighters.
The Kurds are cut off from supply lines and surrounded by Islamic State fighters on three sides. The fourth, the Turkish border, is heavily guarded by Turkish forces, which have prevented Turkish and Syrian Kurds from joining the fight.The Kurds are cut off from supply lines and surrounded by Islamic State fighters on three sides. The fourth, the Turkish border, is heavily guarded by Turkish forces, which have prevented Turkish and Syrian Kurds from joining the fight.
Turkish Army patrols watching from across a border fence have remained spectators to the fighting, even though on Monday the NATO alliance said it would aid Turkey, a member state, if it came under attack.Turkish Army patrols watching from across a border fence have remained spectators to the fighting, even though on Monday the NATO alliance said it would aid Turkey, a member state, if it came under attack.
“Turkey should know that NATO will be there if there is any spillover, any attacks on Turkey as a consequence of the violence we see in Syria,” Jens Stoltenberg, the secretary general of the alliance, said on Monday, according to Reuters. “Turkey should know that NATO will be there if there is any spillover, any attacks on Turkey as a consequence of the violence we see in Syria,” Jens Stoltenberg, the secretary general of the alliance, said on Monday.
Turkish officials have said they will assist in the fight against the Islamic State, but given Turkey’s open border policy that long facilitated the movement of the extremist militants into Syria, Kurds are suspicious of its intentions. They say that Turkey views the semiautonomous Kurdish region that has developed on the Syrian side of the border as the greater threat.Turkish officials have said they will assist in the fight against the Islamic State, but given Turkey’s open border policy that long facilitated the movement of the extremist militants into Syria, Kurds are suspicious of its intentions. They say that Turkey views the semiautonomous Kurdish region that has developed on the Syrian side of the border as the greater threat.
Turkey’s prime minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, told CNN on Monday that Turkey was ready to take many military measures, including sending ground troops to Syria, but that there needed to be “a clear strategy.” Turkish officials were disappointed that President Obama did not make the ouster of President Bashar al-Assad of Syria a goal of the operation against the Islamic State, and have demanded an internationally backed no-fly zone to keep Syrian jets out of the air before taking new military action.
Airstrikes by the United States-led coalition against the Islamic State took out two of the group’s positions south of Kobani on Monday, the American military said. But as Kurdish fighters pleaded for more support, the only other airstrikes on the militant group Monday were conducted elsewhere, in Raqqa and Deir al-Zour Provinces.Airstrikes by the United States-led coalition against the Islamic State took out two of the group’s positions south of Kobani on Monday, the American military said. But as Kurdish fighters pleaded for more support, the only other airstrikes on the militant group Monday were conducted elsewhere, in Raqqa and Deir al-Zour Provinces.
“That makes me wonder why wait for Kobani to fall and only then address the problem and try to solve it,” said Ebrahim Muslem, a Syrian human rights activist who is in touch with the fighters, said in an interview from Suruc, Turkey, near Kobani. Syrian insurgents opposed to the Islamic State have vowed to step up cooperation with the Y.P.G., but the Syrians do not have a strong presence in the area.
Syrian insurgents opposed to the Islamic State have vowed to step up cooperation with the Kurdish militants of the People’s Protection Committees, known as the Y.P.G. But the Syrians do not have a strong presence in the area, where the Y.P.G. has ruled since Syrian government forces withdrew early in Syria’s three-year civil war. The Turkish government was initially reluctant to take strong action against the Islamic State after it overran Mosul and large areas of northern Iraq in August, citing the need to safeguard 46 Turkish hostages being held by the militant group. But the hostages were freed last month in a deal that has raised further questions about the relationship between Turkey and the Islamic State. The BBC on Monday quoted unidentified security sources as saying the hostages were freed in a large prisoner exchange in which around 180 jihadists who had been held in Turkish custody, possibly including two Britons, were handed over to the Islamic State.
The Turkish government was initially reluctant to take strong action against the Islamic State after it overran Mosul and large areas of northern Iraq in August, citing the need to safeguard 43 Turkish hostages being held by the militant group. But the hostages were freed last month in a deal that has raised further questions about the relationship between Turkey and the Islamic State. Turkish officials have neither confirmed nor denied the report, but on Monday a senior party official said such a deal would not have been unreasonable.
The BBC on Monday quoted unidentified security sources as saying the hostages were freed in a large prisoner exchange in which around 180 jihadists who had been held in Turkish custody, possibly including two Britons, were handed over to the Islamic State.
Turkish officials have refused to confirm or deny the report, but on Monday a senior party official said such a deal would not have been unreasonable.
“We might have swapped thousands when lives of our nationals were at stake,” said a governing party official, who asked not to be identified because he was discussing a confidential national security matter.“We might have swapped thousands when lives of our nationals were at stake,” said a governing party official, who asked not to be identified because he was discussing a confidential national security matter.
“Lives of Turkish citizens are not less valuable than an Israeli soldier’s,” he added, referring to Gilad Shalit, who was released in 2011 after five years in captivity, “when the Israeli government swapped 1,200 prisoners last year for his release.” Elsewhere across Syria, insurgents struck on two fronts against government forces.
Elsewhere across Syria, insurgents whose fight against President Bashar al-Assad has been eclipsed in the world’s eyes by the United States-led attacks on the Islamic State struck back on two fronts against government forces. North of Aleppo, insurgent groups including the Qaeda-affiliated Nusra Front and the American-backed Harakat Hazm fought government forces that recently seized the town of Handarat. Fighters from Hazm, which has been supplied with American-made TOW antitank weapons, have destroyed government tanks in recent days, rebels say. Rebel spokesmen on Monday said they were pushing hard to take back the town of Handarat and had captured foreigners, including Afghans and Lebanese, fighting on the government side.
North of Aleppo, insurgent groups including the Qaeda-affiliated Nusra Front and the American-backed Harakat Hazm fought government forces that recently seized the town of Handarat. Government forces are seeking to cut off the rebel-held eastern side of the city of Aleppo, Syria’s largest, while the insurgents in the province are under attack from both the government and the Islamic State.
Fighters from Hazm, which has been supplied with American-made TOW antitank weapons, have destroyed government tanks in recent days, rebels say. Rebel spokesmen on Monday said they were pushing hard to take back the town of Handarat and had captured foreigners, including Afghans and Lebanese, fighting on the government side.
In an unusual battle near the border with the Golan Heights in southern Syria, another United States-backed group, the Omari Brigades of the Syrian Revolutionaries Front, took a government air defense base on the hilltop of Tel al-Harrah and posted a video of several fighters with what they said was Russian-made government air defense equipment.In an unusual battle near the border with the Golan Heights in southern Syria, another United States-backed group, the Omari Brigades of the Syrian Revolutionaries Front, took a government air defense base on the hilltop of Tel al-Harrah and posted a video of several fighters with what they said was Russian-made government air defense equipment.
A covert United States effort to equip and train relatively moderate insurgents there has had few major successes. More aid has been promised to groups deemed moderate by American officials as part of the campaign against the Islamic State. But it was unclear whether the recent victory was because of new equipment or organization or benefited from recent victories in the area by the Nusra Front. A covert United States effort to equip and train relatively moderate insurgents there has had few major successes. More aid has been promised to groups deemed moderate by American officials as part of the campaign against the Islamic State. But it was unclear whether the recent victory was because of new equipment or organization, or if it benefited from recent victories in the area by the Nusra Front.