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Kurds flee as US airstrikes continue
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AMERICAN warplanes pounded Islamic State positions in Syria for a second day yesterday at a strategic post on the Iraqi border, but the campaign did nothing to halt the fighters’ advance on a Kurdish town where refugees are fleeing.
Syrian Kurds said Islamic State responded to attacks by the United States by sending more tanks and fighters into an assault near the Turkish border in the north, where nearly 140,000 civilians have fled in recent days in the fastest exodus yet.
The advance on the town of Kobani is a reminder of the difficulty Washington is likely to face in defeating fighters in Syria, where it lacks strong military allies on the ground.
Fighting between militants and Kurds could be seen from across the border in Turkey, where the sounds of artillery and gunfire echoed around the hills.
Washington and its Arab allies killed scores of Islamic State fighters in the first 24 hours of airstrikes, two weeks after President Barack Obama pledged to hit the group on both sides of the Iraq-Syria border.
The opening strikes suggest one US aim is to hamper Islamic State’s ability to operate across the Iraqi-Syrian frontier. Yesterday, US-led forces hit at least 13 targets in and around Albu Kamal, one of the main border crossings between Iraq and Syria, after striking 22 targets there on Tuesday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
The US military confirmed it had struck inside Syria northwest of al Qaim, the Iraqi town at the Albu Kamal border crossing. It also struck inside Iraq west of Baghdad and near the Iraqi Kurdish capital Erbil yesterday.
Perched on the main Euphrates River valley highway, Albu Kamal controls the route from Islamic State’s de facto capital Raqqa in Syria to the frontlines in western Iraq and down the Euphrates to the outskirts of Baghdad.
Islamic State’s ability to move between Syria and Iraq has been a tactical advantage for the group: fighters sweeping in from Syria helped capture much of northern Iraq in June, and weapons they seized and sent back to Syria helped them in battle there.
An Islamist fighter in Albu Kamal area said there were at least nine strikes yesterday by “crusader forces.”
But even as their outposts elsewhere have been struck, Islamic State fighters have accelerated their campaign to capture Kobani, a Kurdish city on the border with Turkey. Nearly 140,000 Syrian Kurds have fled into Turkey since last week.
Ocalan Iso, deputy leader of the Kurdish forces defending Kobani, said more Islamic State fighters and tanks had arrived in the area since the coalition began airstrikes on the group.
“Kobani is in danger,” he said, repeating calls for the coalition to expand its airstrikes to Islamic State positions near the town.
The Syrian Observatory reported airstrikes overnight near Kobani. But US military, Kurdish and Syrian officials did not report strikes in that area.
Iso said Islamic State fighters had advanced to within 8 kilometers from the southern periphery of Kobani — closer than at any stage in the latest offensive.
“There are more and more Islamic State fighters in the past two days, they have brought all their forces here,” said Ahmed Hassan, a Syrian Kurd who fled to Turkey with his family.
“They have heavy weapons. We are running away from them.”
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