Intensified U.S. airstrikes keep Kobane from falling to Islamic State militants
Turkey’s Erdogan says Islamic State close to taking control of Syrian border town
(about 2 hours later)
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.
Turkey’s president conceded Tuesday that Islamic State fighters were close to taking control of a strategic Syrian border town and suggested that airstrikes alone were not enough to stop further advances by the militants.
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.
The comments by Recep Tayyip Erdogan — during a visit near the Syrian frontier — came as Islamic State forces appeared to tighten their grip around the besieged Syrian Kurdish town of Kobane despite intensified attacks from U.S. warplanes.
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.
“Kobane is about to fall,” Erdogan told Syrian refugees in the Turkish town of Gaziantep just days after Turkish leaders vowed to keep Kobane out of Islamic State hands.
“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.
Erdogan urged for greater coordination with “those who are fighting on the ground” but gave no signals that NATO-member Turkey was preparing to send its powerful military over the border to confront the Islamic State.
“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.
Instead, he called for more international assistance to Syrian rebel factions — some closely backed by Turkey — that have battled since 2011 against the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
The State Department declined to comment on the discussions, with spokeswoman Jen Psaki saying only that Secretary of State John F. Kerry spoke on the phone twice with Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, on Monday night and, briefly, on Tuesday morning. The conversations were “broadly about the challenges we’re facing with ISIL and also Kobane,” she said, using an alternative acronym for the Islamic State.
It further underscored Turkey’s parallel objectives in the Islamic State fight.
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.
Turkey seeks to create an internationally protected buffer zone to block refugee flow and provide possible havens for anti-Assad rebels. It also shares the goal of several Western-allied Arab states, such as Saudi Arabia, to sharply boost rebel firepower for twin fronts against Assad’s forces and the Islamic State.
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.
Last week, Turkish lawmakers gave approval to deploy troops in neighboring Syria and Iraq to battle the militants. Turkish tanks and troops have reinforced border posts, which are within sight of the battles around Kobane as Syrian Kurdish fighters tried to hold off a fierce Islamic State offensive.
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.
Turkey pledged last week that it would not allow Kobane to fall under Islamic State control. Claiming Kobane would give the militants control over key stretches of the Turkish-Syrian border and possibly open new smuggling routes for supplies and recruits.
By nightfall, a Kurdish force known as the People’s Protection Committees 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.”
But Erdogan now acknowledged that it may be too late. He instead looked ahead to ways to blunt additional Islamic State gains.
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.
Erdogan 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-Qaeda-inspired groups among the rebel ranks.
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.
So far, however, the main front against the Islamic State in Syria has been held by Syrian Kurdish militiamen trying to hold Kobane. The U.S. Central Command said at least five airstrikes have targeted Islamic State positions around Kobane since Monday as part of sharply escalated missions in the region.
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.
Among the reported targets were Islamic State armored vehicles and a tank — presumably part of the arsenal seized from Iraqi military and elsewhere as the militants claimed territory over the past months.
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.
But the airstrikes did not appear to force any major pullbacks by the Islamic State, whose black flag was raised Monday near one of the gateways to Kobane.
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.
More than 160,000 refugees have fled to Turkey or nearby areas to escape the fighting. They joined more than 1.5 million Syrians driven to Turkey by the civil war.
“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 arrived since the battle for Kobane began.
Separately, U.S. military forces used remotely piloted aircraft and helicopters to carry out three strikes in Iraq.
“The terror will not be over . . . unless there is cooperation for a ground operation,” Erdogan said Tuesday.
The deployment of U.S. attack helicopters to the battlefield in Iraq suggests that Iraqi troops need closer air support as they fight Islamic State militants, who have inched nearer to Baghdad in recent weeks.
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-Qaeda-inspired groups among the rebel ranks.
The aircraft are known for their accuracy and can fire missiles from several miles away. They also can help hit mobile targets such as armed trucks or ground troops, said Chris Harmer, a retired Navy helicopter pilot who is now an analyst with the Institute for the Study of War.
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.
“The more lively the fight is, the more likely you are to need rotary-wing aircraft to assist forces on the ground,” Harmer said.
Murphy reported from Washington. Carol Morello in Washington contributed to this report.
But because helicopters fly at low altitudes, they are also more vulnerable to rocket-propelled grenades and other weapons.
The Islamic State has demonstrated its ability to take down aircraft in both Iraq and Syria. Last week, members of the jihadist group shot down an Iraqi helicopter near the Baiji oil refinery in northern Iraq. The group also overran Iraqi army bases in the west, prompting intensified strikes from coalition warplanes over the weekend.
