Thursday, September 18, 2014

ISIS militants seize 21 villages Kobani region, 'Islamist' Turkey refuses Kurdish fugitives entry.


ISIS militants seize 21 villages Kobani region in N. Syria, 'Islamist' Turkey refuses Kurdish fugitives entry. (Guardian).


Islamic State (Isis) fighters have captured villages and besieged a Kurdish city in northern Syria near the border with Turkey in a major assault that prompted a commander to appeal for military aid from other Kurds in the region.

With the United States planning to expand military action against Isis from Iraq to Syria, a surveillance drone was spotted for the first time over nearby Isis-controlled territory in Aleppo province, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which tracks Syria's civil war, said on Thursday.

It was not immediately clear who was operating the drone.

President Barack Obama said last week that he would not hesitate to strike the radical Islamist group that has used Syria as a base to advance its plan to reshape the Middle East.

The US is conducting air strikes against Isis in Iraq and last month Obama authorised surveillance flights over Syria.

In an advance near the border with Turkey, Isis fighters using heavy weaponry including tanks seized a group of Kurdish villages near the city of Ayn al-Arab, also known as Kobani. The Observatory said 21 villages had fallen to Isis fighters advancing on the city.

"We've lost touch with many of the residents living in the villages that Isis seized," Ocalan Iso, deputy head of the Kurdish forces in Kobani, told Reuters via Skype.

He said the group was committing massacres and kidnapping women in the newly seized areas. It was not possible to immediately verify his account.

The Kurds were appealing for military aid from other Kurdish groups in the region including the Kurdistan Workers' party (PKK), he said. Support from Kurdish fighters who crossed from Turkey helped to repel an Isis attack on Kobani in July.

The Observatory said there were fears of massacres in the areas seized by Isis. "This is a very important advance for them," Rami Abdulrahman, the Observatory's founder, told Reuters, speaking by phone.

Redur Xelil, spokesman for the main armed Kurdish group in Syria, the YPG, said Isis had encircled Kobani. The group was using tanks, rockets and artillery in the attack. "We call on world powers to move to halt this barbaric assault by Isis," he told Reuters via Skype.

[Google Translate]. Parents said that Turkish authorities prevent the entry of displaced Kurds fleeing the bombing ISIS to northern Kurdistan to this moment. Read the full story here.



Related:  Kurds claim: Sometimes 'NATO 'ally' Turkey  is supplying ISIS with Ammo by train.
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