Kurdish women heading to #Kobane to fight #ISIS.
ISIS controlled over half of Kobane two weeks ago and things were looking pretty bleak for the Kurds, but with the help of the Syrian Free Army, a motorcycle gang from Deutschland (You read right), and a few well aimed US airstrikes, the barbaric Jihadis’ attempt to takeover Kobane is being turned into a rout.
This weekend, after almost two weeks of aerial attacks Isil has begun to to flee the Syrian border town, that they had been on the brink of capturing.
At first the air strikes had appeared to make little difference and for days the jihadists advance had continued into the centre of the Kurdish town.
The crucial turning point, Mr Kharaba said, the US airforce destroyed a building where Isil leaders had been meeting, killing everyone inside.
“About thirty major fighters were killed and some commanders,” said Mr Kharaba, adding that some Syrians loyal to his group had infiltrated Isil to act as spies.
With its best men gone, Mr Kharaba said, Isil has been forced to call on a “police division” – men who manage the law and order of Isil territories but with little experience of front line battles – to come to Kobane.
And without equipment that could be targeted from the air, the jihadists were forced to resort to the same guerrilla tactics used by their opponents. In this new dynamic, knowledge of the town’s layout became key, and in this the Kurdish fighters, many of who are from Kobane, have the upper hand.
By contrast many of Isil’s fighters are foreigners unfamiliar with the streets and alleys.
Locals said they fought Tunisians, Moroccans and Saudi Arabians as well as Syrians in the Isil teams.
“The fighting became street by street, or sometimes, room by room,” said Mr Kharaba.
The development marked a turning point in the long battle for this Kurdish town, which has now taken on, for both Isil and the international US-led alliance, symbolic importance as a test of their ability to win the wider war.
For the past year Isil had been closing in on Kobane, capturing and ruling with an iron fist the hamlets around it, and cutting electricity and water supply to the town.
Inside, men, women and young boys bought rusty Kalashnikov rifles on the black market and signed up to volunteer with the YPG, the Syrian wing of the PKK (Kurdistan Workers’ Party) the proscribed Kurdish militia.
The jihadists brought reinforcements from neighbouring Iraq, where this summer they captured much of the north of the country and billions of dollars worth of American military equipment that was abandoned by fleeing Iraqi army troops.
Mr Kharaba said: “Isil brought their weapons from Iraq. They have tanks and canons and rocket launchers.
But as Rear Adm. John Kirby noted in the Washington Post, those heavy weapons make great targets.
Kirby said the U.S. will continue to launch airstrikes in Iraq as necessary. The air war around Kobane is centered on denying the militants an area they clearly want as a sanctuary, the admiral said.
“The more they want it, the more resources they apply to it, the more targets we have to hit,” Kirby said. “And part of what we’re trying to do is put pressure on them, and the strikes against them and their positions in and around Kobane allow us to do that.”
A 28-year-old Wisconsin man named Jordan Matson is reportedly in Syria and fighting with a Kurdish militia as they battle the jihadist group Islamic State (also known as ISIS or ISIL). Back in the US, people identifying themselves as Matson’s friends have created a page on Facebook on which they are sharing pictures of Matson and cheering him on with memes.
A spokesperson for the Kurdish Yekineyen Parastina Gel, or YPG, told Reuters Matson was one of three American fighting with the group. They said he was in northeastern Syria.
UPDATE:
Good news if true via the AP:
The U.S. military said Sunday it had airdropped weapons, ammunition and medical supplies to Kurdish forces defending the Syrian city of Kobani against Islamic State militants.
The airdrops Sunday were the first of their kind and followed weeks of U.S. and coalition airstrikes in and near Kobani, near the Turkish border. The U.S. said earlier Sunday that it had launched 11 airstrikes overnight in the Kobani area.
In a statement Sunday night, U.S. Central Command said U.S. C-130 cargo planes made multiple drops of arms and supplies provided by Kurdish authorities in Iraq. It said they were intended to enable continued resistance to Islamic State efforts to take full control of Kobani.
The airdrops are almost certain to anger the Turkish government, which has said it would oppose any U.S. arms transfers to the Kurdish rebels in Syria. Turkey views the main Kurdish group in Syria as an extension of the Turkish Kurd group known as the PKK, which has waged a 30-year insurgency in Turkey and is designated a terror group by the U.S. and by NATO.
President Barack Obama called Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday to discuss the situation in Syria and notify him of the plan to make airdrops Sunday, one administration official told reporters. He would not describe Erdogan’s reaction but said U.S. officials are clear about Turkey’s opposition to any moves that help Kurdish forces that Turkey views as an enemy.
It’s about freaking time.
The Kurds should be thanking God that their moment of need came within weeks of the United States’ midterm elections. With the American people now paying attention to what’s going on in the Middle East, Obama couldn’t risk allowing Democrats to receive the brunt of the voters’ wrath in the wake of another major massacre.
Nice Deb 