Kobane: US drops arms and aid to Kurds battling IS and other messes

[88m3]

19 October 2014 Last updated at 23:08 ET
Kobane: US drops arms and aid to Kurds battling IS

The US military said the supplies were designed to "enable continued resistance" against IS (FILE PHOTO)
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Islamic State

• Up in arms
• Tools for the fight
• Turkey's crisis
• Social media war

US military aircraft have dropped weapons, ammunition and medical supplies to Kurdish fighters battling Islamic State (IS) militants in the key Syrian town of Kobane.

US Central Command said C-130 transport aircraft had made "multiple" drops of supplies provided by Kurdish authorities in Iraq.

US air strikes have helped push back IS in the town near the Turkish border.

Correspondents say the airdrops are likely to anger key US ally Turkey.

The drops of supplies provided by Kurdish authorities in Iraq were "intended to enable continued resistance against Isil's attempts to overtake Kobane," CentCom said in a statement. IS is also referred to as Isil and Isis.

All the aircraft involved had returned safely, it added.

US forces say air strikes have slowed IS advances into the city
CentCom says US forces have conducted more than 135 air strikes against IS in Kobani.

"Combined with continued resistance to Isil on the ground, indications are that these strikes have slowed Isil advances into the city, killed hundreds of their fighters and destroyed or damaged scores of pieces of Isil combat equipment and fighting positions," its statement said.

However, it added that IS fighters continued to threaten Kurdish forces' ability to resist and hold the city. "Kobane could still fall," it said.

On Sunday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he would not allow Kurdish fighters to receive any transfers of American arms.

IS militants control territory straddling Syria and Iraq. Kobane is one of their strategic objectives, and fierce fighting has raged in the town for weeks, forcing the evacuation of most of its civilian inhabitants.

Turkey has resisted calls to help the Kurds fighting in Kobane, describing them as terrorists like Islamic State.

Turkey has faced a decades-long insurgency by the Kurdish militant group the PKK, itself regarded as a terrorist group by the US.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-29684761

 

[88m3]

Iraq crisis: Baghdad Shia mosque hit by suicide attack

Iraqi forces are battling Sunni militants across the country
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Islamic State

• Up in arms
• Tools for the fight
• Turkey's crisis
• Social media war

A suicide attacker has killed at least 18 people at a Shia mosque in Iraq, the latest in a spate of similar bombings.

The attacker blew himself up in a crowd gathered for a funeral in western Baghdad's affluent Harthiyah area.

Dozens have been killed in similar attacks in recent weeks that have been widely blamed on Islamic State (IS).

IS militants, who control territory straddling Syria and Iraq, were engaged in battles with Kurdish fighters around the Syrian town of Kobane all weekend.

Earlier this week, the Kurds in Kobane said they had beaten back the Islamists.

But IS apparently launched a renewed effort to retake the town over the weekend.

Kurdish commanders said they had again repulsed the Islamists, thanks to help from US air strikes.

IS ambush
And Reuters news agency reported that the Iraqi army had launched an operation to retake the city of Baiji, near Iraq's biggest oil refinery.

However, the operation had to be aborted after a military vehicle reportedly exploded as part of an ambush by IS that killed four soldiers.

"The attacker surprised our forces as he was driving a military armoured vehicle. We thought it was our vehicle," an army officer told Reuters.

IS has caused chaos across the region, forcing many thousands to flee from their homes and cracking down on anyone who disagrees with their interpretation of Islam.

The US is leading a coalition of countries providing air power and technical support to Iraq's forces.

Australia, one of the biggest contributors to the coalition, announced earlier that a 200-strong special forces group could now be deployed in Iraq after a legal wrangle was resolved.

In addition, the US is also carrying out air strikes over Syria - although this is controversial because the Syrian government has not given permission.


http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-29684355


only a matter of time

 

[blackzeus]

Cold War part deux between US and Turkey, for control of Syria. Real talk, Assad is fighting US, Isis, Turkey, and his own people at the same time. He might just be the goat contemporary Arab G

 

[88m3]

Cold War part deux between US and Turkey, for control of Syria. Real talk, Assad is fighting US, Isis, Turkey, and his own people at the same time. He might just be the goat contemporary Arab G

It's getting wild.

Turkey said today that they're going to let Kurds go fight in Kobane now.

 

[ill]

It's getting wild.

Turkey said today that they're going to let Kurds go fight in Kobane now.

If they didn't, they would have their own civil war within the year. I'm surprised Turkey held out this long suppressing their Kurds.

 

[DonFrancisco]

Kind of makes it seem like the US wants to make the Muslim version of Israel in terms of a strategic defense partner. I'm betting the Turks feel this would be a slap in the face.

 

[blackzeus]

Kind of makes it seem like the US wants to make the Muslim version of Israel in terms of a strategic defense partner. I'm betting the Turks feel this would be a slap in the face.

Kurds hate everybody, fight to the death, don't commit terrorist attacks, and have no plans of taking over other people's terrority. Perfect passive-aggressive military partner

 

[Shogun]

New borders need to be drawn or this shyt will never end.

 

[88m3]

If they didn't, they would have their own civil war within the year. I'm surprised Turkey held out this long suppressing their Kurds.

Seems like common sense; I'm sure waiting this long has built enough animosity.

 

[88m3]

New borders need to be drawn or this shyt will never end.

Lets give Turkey: Lebanon, Syria, and Iraq. Perhaps Armenia Azerbaijan, and Georgia for good measure to really piss Russia off.

 

[Shogun]

Lets give Turkey: Lebanon, Syria, and Iraq. Perhaps Armenia Azerbaijan, and Georgia for good measure to really piss Russia off.

Or a Kurdish state, a Sunni Iraqi state and a Shiite Iraqi state. Obviously will never happen.

 

[Truth200]

We don't have money to help the black community in America...

But we have extra weapons, ammunition and medical supplies to give to Kurdish fighters.

 

[88m3]

Photos: The battle for Kobane, revealed by U.N. satellite imagery




By Rick Noack October 20 at 1:58 PM
Photos depicting the ongoing battle against the Islamic State are hard to come by, with many of the most prominent images often taken by the militants themselves. Since the world's focus shifted to the northern Syrian city of Kobane, a Kurdish haven located right next to the Turkish border, that has changed. There has been no shortage of dramatic footage, filmed from relative safety across the border in Turkey.

United Nations Institute for Training and Research and shot by Digital Globe -- offer another perspective. The pictures show from bird's eye view how Kobane has turned into a war zone. The first set of pictures was shot Sept. 6, a few weeks before the fighting in the city reached international front pages. The second set of images was taken last Wednesday, Oct. 15.

On their flight, Syrians abandoned their cars at a border crossing


This is one of the most striking photo comparisons, although it does not show any actual destruction. Syrian refugees who fled the battle zone left their cars on the Syrian side of the border with Turkey.

Many Syrian refugees now live in this camp nearby


These satellite images depict a refugee camp, built within weeks on the Turkish side of the border. While fighting continues only a few kilometers away from the camp, many refugees have decided to travel farther. Some of the estimated 200,000 residents of Kobane and surrounding villages who have fled said they didn't feel welcome in Turkey and have headed to the autonomous Kurdish region in Iraq. Many of them were forced to leave without being able to take their belongings across the Turkish border.

"We left everything, apart from this,” a young woman told France 24television, pointing at rolls of bedding and some shopping bags. "We don't have anything. We just ran.”

If Kobane's citizens were able to return, they would find a largely destroyed city


Days of fighting have left many of the city's buildings destroyed. Houses have turned into craters. The United Nations does not specify whether the damage visible in the pictures was caused by the Islamic State militants, Kurdish fighters or airstrikes conducted by the U.S.-led alliance against the Islamic State.


The signs of fighting are spread all over the city

The next picture -- for which the United Nations did not provide a comparison to a previously taken satellite image -- shows details of the street fights between Islamic State militants and Kurdish fighters. A roadblock has been set up, and "vehicle traffic is almost entirely absent throughout the town," according to the U.N. Institute for Training and Research.

agreed Monday to allow Iraqi Kurdish fighters to cross the border, enabling them to support the Syrian Kurds who are already fighting the Islamic State in Kobane.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs...-revealed-by-u-n-satellite-imagery/?TID+SM_FB

 

[Marvel]

Thank you Esau...Keep on stirring us up to World War 3...Battle of Armageddon in the valley of Jehoshaphat coming soon