IS pushed back in Kobani after airstrikes intensify
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INTENSIFIED airstrikes helped Kurdish militia push back Islamic State jihadists fighting for Kobani, as pressure mounted yesterday for more international action to save the key Syrian border town.
Across the frontier in Turkey, the government’s lack of action against the jihadists was drawing a furious response, with at least 19 people killed in pro-Kurdish demonstrations.
A strike by the US-led coalition hit near Kobani early yesterday after a flurry of raids the day before. It sent a cloud of thick black smoke billowing from the eastern side of the town, where Kurdish militia were reported to have forced IS fighters out of several neighborhoods.
The jihadists pierced Kobani’s defences this week, sparking fierce street battles that continued yesterday with the sounds of heavy gunfire and mortar shells falling on the town.
A Kobani official, Idris Nahsen, said fighters from the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) had managed to push IS militants out of key areas after “helpful” airstrikes by the US-led coalition.
“The situation has changed since yesterday. YPG forces have pushed back ISIS forces,” he told AFP, using another name for the extremist group.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitoring group, also said IS fighters had withdrawn overnight from several areas and were no longer inside the western part of Kobani.
Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman, whose group relies on sources inside Syria, said the withdrawal came after airstrikes hit IS positions “causing casualties and damaging at least four of their vehicles.”
But he said that the jihadists had launched a new assault yesterday in the east of the town.
The Observatory said at least 32 IS fighters were killed in and around Kobani on Tuesday.
Amid warnings of Kobani’s imminent fall, the UN envoy to Syria, Staffan de Mistura, joined calls for the international community to take urgent action.
“The world, all of us, will regret deeply if (IS) is able to take over a city which has defended itself with courage but is close to not being able to do so. We need to act now,” he said.
Washington launched its air campaign against IS in Iraq in August and last month expanded it to Syria. Turkey’s parliament voted to join the campaign but Ankara has yet to announce military action.
The Turkish army has deployed in southeastern cities including Diyarbakir, where rioting took place overnight.
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