ISIS- SYRIA-THREAD

[Anthea]

Bloomberg

Kurdish Brothers in Arms Caught on Either Side of Battle
By Selcan Hacaoglu

Kurdish mother Kiymet Ergun is praying her two sons don’t meet anytime soon.

Her eldest is serving in the Turkish army, stationed in the province that borders Syria and includes the towns and villages where Kurdish fighters gather before heading across to the city of Kobani to combat Islamic State extremists. Her 16-year-old boy left home for school last month and never made it back. The next day, his friends handed her a note.

“I am going to fight for the Kurdish people in Kobani,” the son, Fesih, wrote on a page torn out from his school notebook. “Give your blessing and don’t cry for me.”

That was more than three weeks ago, when the teenager and two friends left to help defend the Kurdish stronghold. Since then, the violence has escalated with the repercussions spreading across the region.

The Kurds blame Turkey for not intervening and instead deploying its military to put down their protests at the inaction. The Turkish military said yesterday it struck Kurdish militant targets after troops came under fire.

“My eldest son is afraid that he could be deployed across the border,” Ergun, 57, said, declining to give his name because of concern about his safety. “My son in the military keeps asking me what will happen? Is my brother going to fire at me or will I fire at him?”

Frantic Search

Ergun spoke in an interview this week in a Turkish village about 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) from Kobani. She traveled there hoping to hear from Fesih. The Ergun family lives in the port of Mersin on the Mediterranean about 330 kilometers away, though hails from the Kurdish-dominated city of Diyarbakir.

The note from the younger son arrived after his mother had frantically gone looking for him before reporting him missing to the police. One of the friends Fesih left the school with was 15-year-old Mehmet Emin Gormen.

Gormen’s father, also Mehmet, tried to call his son several times before realizing Mehmet’s mobile phone was at home. He learned from friends that he had crossed the border to Kobani.

“We had no idea about it but he was lately talking about inhumane atrocities of Islamic State,” Gormen said. “We are worried for them. We can’t sleep when we hear the bombings at night. Today a piece of shrapnel fell just 50 meters away from us and it was frightening.”

Kurdish fighters in Kobani are largely members of the YPG, an affiliate of the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, a separatist group classified as terrorists by Turkey, the U.S. and European Union. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says the protests over the decision to stay out of the city are designed to undermine the government. More than 30 people have been killed this month as the demonstrations turned deadly.

Kurdish Warning

Ergun and Gormen echoed other parents of Kurdish fighters this week in warning that Turkey will face a bigger backlash should Islamic State take Kobani. That could be a matter of days, Faysal Sariyildiz, a Kurdish lawmaker in the Turkish parliament, said in an interview yesterday.

“If we were traitors, my son would not be serving in the military, but I am also proud of Fesih for defending Kurds,” said Ergun. “Either we all die together or we will be freed together. If Kobani falls, nothing will stay the same here.”

Muzaffer Kaya, 20, went further. He was also near the border with Syria, waiting to join his 18-year-old brother, Ferhat, who has taken up arms in Kobani.

“No one should have a doubt about it,” Kaya said. “If Kobani falls, there will be civil war in Turkey, which is only watching my brothers being massacred.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Selcan Hacaoglu in Suruc, Turkey at shacaoglu@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Alaa Shahine at asalha@bloomberg.net Rodney Jefferson

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-10-1 ... attle.html

[Anthea]

Reuters

U.S.-led air strikes intensify as Syria conflict destabilizes Turkey
By Humeyra Pamuk and Daren Butler

American-led forces sharply intensified air strikes against Islamic State fighters threatening Kurds on Syria's Turkish border on Monday and Tuesday after the jihadists' advance began to destabilize Turkey.

The coalition had conducted 21 attacks on the militants near the Syrian Kurdish town of Kobani over the past two days and appeared to have slowed Islamic State advances there, the U.S. military said, but cautioned that the situation remained fluid.

War on the militants in Syria is threatening to unravel a delicate peace in neighboring Turkey where Kurds are furious with Ankara over its refusal to help protect their kin in Syria.

The plight of the Syrian Kurds in Kobani provoked riots among Turkey's 15 million Kurds last week in which at least 35 people were killed.

Turkish warplanes were reported to have attacked Kurdish rebel targets in southeast Turkey after the army said it had been attacked by the banned PKK Kurdish militant group, risking reigniting a three-decade conflict that killed 40,000 people before a cease-fire was declared two years ago.

Kurds inside Kobani said the U.S.-led strikes on Islamic State had helped, but that the militants, who have besieged the town for weeks, were still on the attack.

"Today there were air strikes throughout the day, which is a first. And sometimes we saw one plane carrying out two strikes, dropping two bombs at a time," said Abdulrahman Gok, a journalist with a local Kurdish paper who is inside the town.

"The strikes are still continuing," he said by telephone, as an explosion sounded in the background.

"In the afternoon, Islamic State intensified its shelling of the town," he said. "The fact that they're not conducting face-to-face, close distance fight but instead shelling the town from afar is evidence that they have been pushed back a bit."

Asya Abdullah, co-chair of the dominant Kurdish political party in Syria, PYD, said the latest air strikes had been "extremely helpful". "They are hitting Islamic State targets hard and because of those strikes we were able to push back a little. They are still shelling the city center."

It was the largest number of air strikes on Kobani since the U.S.-led campaign in Syria began last month, the Pentagon said. The White House said the impact was constrained by the absence of forces on the ground but that evidence so far showed its strategy was succeeding.

CEASEFIRE THREATENED

The Turkish Kurds' anger and resulting unrest is a new source of turmoil in a region consumed by Iraqi and Syrian civil wars and an international campaign against Islamic State fighters.

The PKK accused Ankara of violating the cease-fire with the air strikes, on the eve of a deadline set by its jailed leader to salvage the peace process.

"For the first time in nearly two years, an air operation was carried out against our forces by the occupying Turkish Republic army," the PKK said. "These attacks against two guerrilla bases at Daglica violated the ceasefire," the PKK said, referring to an area near the border with Iraq.

U.S. President Barack Obama, who ordered the bombing campaign against Islamic State fighters that started in August, was to discuss the strategy on Tuesday with military leaders from 20 countries, including Turkey, Arab states and Western allies.

Washington has faced the difficult task of building a coalition to intervene in Syria and Iraq, two countries with complex multi-sided civil wars in which most of the nations of the Middle East have enemies and clients on the ground.

In particular, U.S. officials have expressed frustration at Turkey's refusal to help them fight against Islamic State. Washington has said Turkey has agreed to let it strike from Turkish air base; Ankara says this is still under discussion.

NATO-member Turkey has refused to join the coalition unless it also confronts Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, a demand that Washington, which flies its air missions over Syria without objection from Assad, has so far rejected.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Tuesday there was no discrepancy between Ankara and Washington over the strategy for fighting Islamic State in Kobani and that Ankara would define its role according to its own timetable.

In Paris for talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov amid East-West tensions over Ukraine, Kerry said they had agreed to share more intelligence on Islamic State.

The fate of Kobani, where the United Nations says thousands could be massacred, could wreck efforts by the Turkish government to end the insurgency by PKK militants, a conflict that largely ended with the start of a peace process in 2012.

The peace process with the Kurds is one of the main initiatives of President Tayyip Erdogan's decade in power, during which Turkey has enjoyed an economic boom underpinned by investor confidence in future stability.

The unrest shows the difficulty Turkey has had in designing a Syria policy. Turkey has already taken in 1.2 million refugees from Syria's three-year civil war, including 200,000 Kurds who fled the area around Kobani in recent weeks.

"PROVOCATIONS COULD BRING MASSACRE"

Jailed PKK co-founder Abdullah Ocalan has said peace talks between his group and the Turkish state could come to an end by Wednesday. After visiting him in jail last week, Ocalan's brother Mehmet quoted him as saying: "We will wait until October 15 ... After that there will be nothing we can do."

A pro-Kurdish party leader read out a statement from Ocalan in parliament on Tuesday in which the PKK leader said Kurdish parties should work with the government to end street violence.

"Otherwise we will open the way to provocations that could bring about a massacre," Ocalan said in the statement, which the party said he wrote last week.

Turkish attacks on Kurdish positions were once a regular occurrence in southeast Turkey but had not taken place for two years. The PKK said the strikes took place on Monday, although some Turkish news reports said they happened on Sunday.

Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said the Turkish military had retaliated against a PKK attack in the border area, without referring specifically to air strikes.

Hurriyet newspaper said the air strikes caused "major damage" to the PKK. "F-16 and F-4 warplanes which took off from (bases in the southeastern provinces of) Diyarbakir and Malatya rained down bombs on PKK targets after they attacked a military outpost in the Daglica region," Hurriyet said.

"TOO LATE FOR US"

The battle for Kobani has ground on for nearly a month, although on Monday Kurdish fighters managed to replace an Islamic State flag in the West of the town with one of their own. The fighters, known as Popular Protection Units (YPG) want Turkey to allow them to bring arms across the border.

In the Turkish town of Suruc, 10 km (6 miles) from the Syrian frontier, a funeral for four female YPG fighters was being held. Hundreds at the cemetery chanted "Murderer Erdogan" in Turkish and also "long live YPG" in Kurdish.

Sehahmed, 42, at the cemetery to visit the grave of his son who was a YPG fighter and died only a few days ago, said if Turkey had intervened in Kobani, the town would have been saved.

"For days now they are just watching our people get killed. Obama is too late too. (Islamic State) is now inside the city, they're on the streets. The air strikes won't work, it will only delay the inevitable. Its too late for us. Our poor people, we face one disaster after another."

At least six air strikes, gunfire and shelling could be heard from Mursitpinar on the Turkish side of the border on Tuesday, where Kurds, many with relatives fighting in Kobani, have maintained a vigil, watching the fighting from hillsides.

Kurds in neighboring Iraq, who are also fighting hard against Islamic State, said they had sent ammunition to help their Syrian brethren in Kobani. Syrian Kurds said the shipment could not get to Kobani without Turkey opening a supply route.

In Iraq, Kurdish forces and government troops have rolled back some Islamic State gains in the north of the country in recent weeks, but the fighters have advanced in the west, seizing territory in the Euphrates valley within striking distance of the capital Baghdad.

Members of Iraq's Shi'ite minority have been targeted by recent bomb attacks in Baghdad, some claimed by Islamic State. On Tuesday, 25 people were killed by a car bomb, including a Shi'ite Muslim member of Iraq's parliament.

(Additional reporting by Jeff Mason and Phil Stewart in Washington; Writing by Peter Graff, Oliver Holmes and Philippa Fletcher; Editing by David Stamp)

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/10/ ... ZI20141014

[Anthea]

Washington Post

Foreign fighters flow to Syria

An estimated 15,000 militants from at least 80 nations are believed to have entered Syria to help overthrow the regime of President Bashar al-Assad according the CIA and studies by ISCR and The Soufan Group. Many of these fighters are believed to have joined units that are now part of the Islamic State. Western officals are concerned about what these individuals may do upon returning to their native countries.



http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/for ... aphic.html

[Anthea]

[Anthea]

Picture of Nalin Afrin the leader of Kurdish resistance
fighting against Evil ISIS Terrorist in Kobane

[Anthea]

Sadly nobody tells the truth anymore

Some claim ISIS black flag East Kobane is not there anymore. NOT true.

ISIS still controls that area. 2nd pic is false

A journalist with contacts in Kobani - currently on the Turkey, Syria border near Kobani - believes the second photo to be false

Now some of the media are telling us that the black flag was taken down and replaced by this:



Which looks remarkably similar to this photo from the beginning of September



Twins do you think

In future every time I post anything from the daily mail I will add the word

UNCONFIRMED

[Anthea]

Obviously this man was studying sex orgies so

that he knew what to do with his 72 virgins

[Anthea]

These are some of the lovely Kurdish ladies who
strike fear into the hearts of the Islamic State fighters

I expect they feel absolutely terrified just looking at this photo

I understand why these ladies give ISIS nightmares

I have never seen ladies look so violent and ferocious before

Looks as thought they were about to eat the baby goat live

[Anthea]

Reuters

Hundreds of Islamic State militants killed in Kobani strikes

U.S.-led air strikes have killed several hundred Islamic State fighters around the Syrian town of Kobani, the Pentagon said on Wednesday, but it cautioned that the town near Turkey's border could still fall to the Sunni militant group.

The U.S.-led coalition has launched about 40 air strikes on the mainly Kurdish town of Kobani in the past 48 hours, the largest number since the strikes inside Syria began on Sept. 22 and illustrating the difficulty of staunching a nearly month-long Islamic State offensive on the town.

Rear Admiral John Kirby, a Pentagon spokesman, said bad weather in Iraq had freed up coalition firepower to attack Kobani targets. But he added the situation was fluid, with the Kurdish militia still controlling the town, although with pockets held by Islamic State.

"The more they want it, the more resources they apply to it, the more targets we have to hit," Kirby said, adding: "We know we've killed several hundred of them."

The strikes, he added, had degraded Islamic State's ability to move around forces and sustain themselves, "and it's not like they have a whole heck of a lot of ability to reconstitute that."

The siege of the mainly Kurdish town on the border with Turkey has become a focus of the U.S.-led effort to halt the militants, who have seized swaths of territory in Syria and Iraq. The United Nations has warned of a massacre if the town falls to the militants, who now control nearly half of it.

Kirby said only hundreds of civilians remained in the town, which is also known as Ayn al-Arab.

He also suggested improving weather in Iraq would bolster the intelligence picture needed for air strikes.

"As the weather improves, I think ... you'll see continued pressure applied as appropriate and as we're able to," he said.

The Pentagon's comments came during increased scrutiny in the United States of President Barack Obama's strategy to defeat the group in Iraq and Syria without sending American ground troops into combat.

Obama on Tuesday told military leaders from more than 20 countries working with Washington to defeat the Islamic State that he was deeply concerned about the extremist group's advances in Kobani and in western Iraq. Still, Obama did not hint at any change in strategy.

Republican Senator John McCain, a frequent Obama critic and his opponent in the 2008 election, said over the weekend that "they're winning and we're not," referring to Islamic State.

Asked about McCain's remarks, Kirby said: "It's a mixed picture."

"We know we're having some success. We know we're making progress. But it's going to take a long time," Kirby said.

"And just as readily, I'll say there's going to be days, there's going to be moments, where we're set back."

(Editing by Jason Szep and Peter Cooney)

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/10/ ... EY20141015

[Anthea]

Bloomberg

U.S. Steps Up Kobani Bombing to Back Kurds Fighting ISIS
By Selcan Hacaoglu and Salma El Wardany

The U.S. has intensified airstrikes against Islamic State militants battling to capture Kobani, helping defenders of the Kurdish stronghold to recover lost ground.

The U.S. carried out 18 airstrikes near the Syrian town yesterday and the previous day, destroying several Islamic State positions and hitting buildings occupied by the group’s fighters, the U.S. Central Command said by e-mail.

The air strikes have increased partly because there are more of the militants in and around Kobani, Pentagon spokesman Rear Admiral John Kirby told reporters in Washington. He warned that the town “could very well still fall” to Islamic State.

Capturing Kobani, also known as Ayn al-Arab, would extend Islamic State’s grip over a stretch of the border between Syria and Turkey. It would also deliver a blow to Kurdish autonomy in the region that has deepened as the Syrian government lost control of large swaths of land to rebels during the country’s civil war.



A barrage of 14 airstrikes on Oct. 14, the biggest single-day total since the campaign began, helped Kurds retake a hill west of the town, according to Dicle Kobani, a Kurdish commander. “The airstrikes were intense,” said Kobani. “With the help of U.S. and others we will be able to repel them.”

The Kurdish fighters in Kobani are mostly members of the YPG, an affiliate of the Kurdistan Workers Party separatist group long classified as terrorists by Turkey, the U.S. and European Union.

Clashes raged yesterday in several areas in the town, according to the U.K.-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Militants “sneaked into the city and emerged from houses in the early hours of the morning but we managed to force them to retreat,” said Kobani, the Kurdish commander.

To contact the reporters on this story: Selcan Hacaoglu in Ankara at shacaoglu@bloomberg.net; Salma El Wardany in Cairo at selwardany@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Alaa Shahine at asalha@bloomberg.net Ben Holland, Mark Williams

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-10-1 ... obani.html

[Anthea]

Bloomberg

Obama Rallies Allies as Doubts Grow on Islamic State Plan
By David Lerman and Angela Greiling Keane

President Barack Obama, seeking to shore up the coalition fighting Islamic State, said the U.S. and its allies are engaged in a long campaign that also must battle sectarianism and economic deprivation in the region.

Amid questions of whether U.S.-led airstrikes can stop the extremist Sunni group from gaining territory in Iraq and Syria, Obama defended his strategy as he met yesterday with top military commanders from 21 countries allied with the U.S.

“This is going to be a long-term campaign,” Obama said after the meeting hosted by Army General Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. “This is not a classic army in which we defeat them on the battlefield and then they ultimately surrender.”

They convened at Andrews Air Force Base just outside Washington following a new round of airstrikes near the Syrian Kurdish town of Kobani, which is under siege by Islamic State fighters.

Illustrating the complexities of alliances in the region, Kurds across the border in Turkey have protested the government’s failure to prevent Islamic State from overrunning Kobani, and the Turkish forces said it hit Kurdish militant targets this week.

The Kurdish fighters in Kobani are largely members of the YPG, an affiliate of the Kurdistan Workers Party separatist group long classified as terrorists by Turkey, the U.S. and European Union. The U.S. is asking Turkey for permission to use military bases in Turkey for operations against Islamic State.

Militants Advance

The U.S. has little to show for the thousands of flights and hundreds of air attacks it has conducted over the past two months with European and Arab partners.

Baghdad, Iraq’s capital, is the target of frequent attacks, and the airport is under grave risk. Dempsey told ABC television that the U.S. had to call in Apache attack helicopters to prevent Islamic State forces from overrunning Iraqi troops and seizing the airport.

The towns of Hit and Kubaisa were captured last week and Haditha could fall within days, said Faleh al-Issawi, the deputy head of Anbar’s provincial council, in a phone interview.

“This is a very, very serious threat,” said James Jeffrey, a former U.S. ambassador to Iraq under Obama who is now at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. “Time isn’t on our side. We’re going to start losing coalition members.”

Ground Troops

Jeffrey said the administration’s steadfast opposition to U.S. ground combat troops is making it harder to reassure allies of an American commitment to the battle.

“Constantly whining about how we’re never going to put ground troops in there is simply not going over well,” he said.

White House and Pentagon officials defended the effectiveness of the U.S. and coalition airstrikes.

White House press secretary Josh Earnest said there is “early evidence” that Obama’s strategy is succeeding. Acknowledging that airstrikes alone won’t change the balance in the fight overnight, Earnest said it will still take some time to get a ground force of local troops and Syrian rebels in place.

Pentagon spokesman Army Colonel Steve Warren said that the strikes in Syria are “more of a strategic nature to try and choke off” the Islamic State’s ability “to resupply to reequip and to train its forces in Iraq.”

‘Too Premature’

Warren outlined successes and setbacks in both Iraq and Syria, noting “to judge the success or failure” of air strikes “after only several weeks of what will be months and possibly years” of effort “is simply too premature.”

The strikes on a broad array of targets and positions “in the next year or two will have a cumulative impact,” Warren said.

Even with some initial success at forcing a retreat from Iraq’s largest dam and a town populated by the minority Yezidis, the airstrikes and Iraqi troops haven’t stopped Islamic State from advancing.

The group, which declared an Islamic caliphate and has beheaded American and European aid workers and journalists, came closer to gaining full control of Iraq’s Anbar Province after seizing a military base west of Baghdad.

The problem in Syria is even worse. The U.S. and allies are conducting airstrikes without any ground forces to help them spot targets and conduct the kind of urban warfare needed to dislodge extremists from cities.

Attacking Assad

Kurds just across the border in neighboring Turkey have watched with alarm as Islamic State forces move toward the Syrian town of Kobani, whose fall would give the extremist group control of territory stretching from the Turkish border to the outskirts of Baghdad.

“President Obama’s pledge to ‘degrade and ultimately destroy’ the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant, or ISIL, is plainly failing,” said John Nagl, a retired Army officer who served in Iraq, in a column for Politico. “Today, the barbarians are literally at the gates of Baghdad.”

The effort is further complicated by U.S. reluctance to attack the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, which opposes Islamic State but is also battling the moderate rebels the U.S. seeks to train.

While the administration doesn’t want to go after Assad’s forces, “They may be pushed to do that because the Sunni states and Turkey are absolutely committed to fighting Assad,” Jeffrey said.

Obama’s Passion

Former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, who left office last year, criticized Obama for ruling out ground troops and not showing enough passion in leading a military offensive.

“I don’t mind presidents who have the quality of a law professor in looking at the issues and determining just exactly, you know, what needs to be done,” he said of his former boss on CBS television on Oct. 12. “But presidents need to also have the heart of a warrior. That’s the way you get things done, is you engage in the fight.”

Obama, who won office by pledging to get the U.S. out of Iraq, has been adamant that American troops won’t return to ground combat there since leaving the country in 2011.

To contact the reporters on this story: David Lerman in Washington at dlerman1@bloomberg.net; Angela Greiling Keane in Washington at agreilingkea@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: John Walcott at jwalcott9@bloomberg.net Joe Sobczyk, Justin Blum

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-10-1 ... -plan.html

[Anthea]

WESTERN KURDISTAN (Syrian Kurdistan)

The situation in Western Kurdistan faces, as it has always done, a political and media blackout by the

Syrian authorities. However, in order to clarify the situation in Western Kurdistan we would like to give you

a brief account of the Kurdish question in general. The Kurdish people is the fourth largest nation in the

Middle East and the largest nation in the world without a national state. Kurdistan used to be, like all the existing

countries in the Middle East, under the rule of the Ottoman Empire. In the aftermath of the First World War

when the Ottoman Empire disintegrated (1918) it seemed the most reasonable solution that Kurdistan

should be granted national independence. Although the Treaty of Sevres (1920) did provide the creation of

an independent Kurdish State, when Mustafa Kamal became the Turkish leader he refused to accept this. A

second treaty of Lausanne was signed in 1923, and Kurdistan was not mentioned in it. Then in a Franco-

Turkish agreement the railway line between Mousel (a city in Southern Kurdistan) and Aleppo (a city in Western

Kurdistan) became the border line between Turkey and Syria. The result of these agreements, in which the

Kurds had no saying whatsoever, was the division of Kurdistan. The Kurds have never accepted this, so they

started their continuous struggles against the regimes occupying Kurdistan, namely Iraq, Turkey, Syria, Iran,

and the former Soviet Union. These governments since then have practised the most repressive policies in the

history of mankind against the Kurds.

Since the end of World War I, the Kurds have had no national rights, and their country Kurdistan was

divided and occupied as an international colony, and the Kurds have been prosecuted, massacred,

assimilated and denied the very basic human rights. Whether the Kurds are demanding full independence or

a more limited autonomy or extension of electricity to their villages in these States the Kurdish people face

severe restrictions and harsh oppression. As we mentioned earlier the Franco-Turkish

agreement(Ankara Treaty 1921) set the boundary which separated Western Kurdistan from the

motherland Kurdistan. As a result thousands of families were divided. Those on the northern side of the

railway line came under Turkish occupation (and in fact are regarded as Turks by the Turkish government), and

those on the southern side of the railway line came under the Syrian occupation, whose population now is

more than three millions, (and in fact are regarded as Arabs by the Syrian government).

The Kurds in Syria during the twenties and thirties enjoyed to some extent press and publishing freedom as

Hawar Newspaper, and had their own centres as Kurdistan Club and organisations as Khoiboun Party,

under the French colony. When Syria got independence in 1946 and Arabs took control of the government, the

Kurds lost everything they had achieved. All Kurdish centres were closed, organisations were banned and all

Kurdish publications, books, magazines and newspapers, new and old, were confiscated. The

leaders of the Kurdish people in Syria were sent into exile or executed. Below are a few examples of these

atrocities:

1- In 1930 the French colonials in Syria exiled the Kurdish leader Apo Osman Sabri to the Island of
Madagascar. He was brought back as a result of heavy pressure by the Kurds on the authorities.

Since then to 11/10/1993, this Kurdish hero Apo Osman Sabri has been arrested on more than 18

occasions and spent more than 12 years behind bars. He was not allowed to travel as well because

he had been deprived of his Syrian nationality.

2- In 1951 the Syrian authorities assassinated Prince

Jaladat Badir Khan and exiled many of Kurdish dignitaries such as Prince Kamiran Badir Khan,

Dr. Nouriddin Zaza, Dr. Ismet Sheriff Wanly and Dr. Jawad Mella. (personal friends and heroes - sadly Sheriff Wanly has now passed away - a truly brilliant gentleman and sadly missed)

3- In 1958 the Syrian authorities dismissed hundreds of Kurdish officers from the Syrian army because just

they were Kurds, among them were: The chief of staff in the Syrian Army General Tawfik

Nizamaddin, General Mahmoud Shawkat, Colonel Fuad Malatali, Colonel Bakri Qotresh...

4- In 13/11/1960 the Syrian authorities burnt to death 380 Kurdish children in the town of Amouda while

they were watching a film in the cinema.

5- In 1962 the Syrian authorities deprived 150000 Kurds of the Syrian citizenship (become now

400000) in the province of Al-Jazierah, one of them the former General Tawfik Nizamaddin.

6- In 1967 the Syrian authorities carried out a racial policy called "the Arab Belt" which aimed at the

expulsion of the Kurdish population living along the borders of Iraq and Turkey "15 km wide and 375 km

long" and replacing Arabs in their areas. The purpose was to separate these Kurdish areas of

Kurdistan from other Kurdish areas in Iraq and Turkey.

7- A group of patriotic Kurds has been arrested in Syria and badly tortured such as Mr. Mohamed Bakir, Mr.

Hoshang Sabri and Mr. Jawad Mella in the 1960s and others has been arrested in the 1970s for more

than 15 years without any court decision, one of these Mr. Daham Mero was released, and that was

because of his age, he was over eighty, and many other Kurdish political prisoners have been killed as

Dr. Hamid Sino, or created a mental illness to them as Mr. Bahjat Mohamed.

8- On March 21, 1986 the Syrian authorities prevented

the Kurds from celebrating their national day "Nawroz". The Kurds organized a peaceful

demonstration in Damascus protesting against this action. The Syrian army then opened fire at the rally

and as a result a Kurdish youth was killed and tens injured.

9- In 23/3/1993 the Syrian authorities burnt to death 72 Kurdish prisoners in the central prison of Al-
Hasaka city.

10- In 12 March 2004 the Syrian authorities killed and injured hundreds and arrested thousands in all

Kurdish areas during The Great Uprising. (we must not forget how many years Kurds have suffered)

11- In10 May 2005 the Syrian authorities kidnapped the Kurdish leader Mashouq Al-Khaznawi and

tortured him to death in 1-6-2005.

Anthea: this leaflet and the facts contained herein are based on an old leaflet by Dr Jawad Mella and will be updated

[Anthea]

Fox News

Kobani’s fall would be strategic loss in fight against ISIS
By Christopher Snyder

Kurdish fighters continue to battle ISIS terrorists in the Syrian town of Kobani as fear grows they might lose control, but according to a former top U.S. military official, the Kurds might be gaining momentum.

Fox News’ Lisa Daftari spoke to retired U.S. Brigadier General Ernie Audino about the fight in Kobani. Audino was embedded for a year with Kurdish Peshmerga forces during the Iraq War and is familiar with tactics used by the Kurds.

Audino, whose contacts inside Kobani are updating him on the battle, said there are indications recent coalition airstrikes are helping.

“They [Kurds] are fighting like crazy to defend the city … under the support of those airstrikes the PYD [Kurdish Democratic Union], the Kurdish fighters inside Kobani have reclaimed portions or expanded their control primarily on the western side of Kobani, but the eastern side still has serious ISIS concentration.”

The U.S. and its partner nations need to come to the realization, Audino believes, that the terrorists are fighting total war.

“They have mobilized all elements within their command for the prosecution of this effort against humanity and decency. We want to believe something it’s not – a few airstrikes will not win this war; they need to be ramped up.”

There is a growing call for the U.S. to boost its support to Kurdish Peshmerga forces.

“Peshmerga show the will … they may not have the ability and they are being hampered right now by a lack of serious modern equipment … we can help with that,” said Audino.

If ISIS takes over Kobani, they could gain a strategic location for expanding their operations.

“It sits on a very important border crossing into Turkey, also sits in the center of Kurdish populated areas inside Syria … ISIS would like nothing more than to take that town to support their efforts to continue to dominate Syria and press support into Iraq,” said Audino.

Link to Article and Excellent Video:

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2014/10/15 ... inst-isis/

[Anthea]

Reuters

Ramped up air strikes stall Islamic State advance on Syrian town
By Humeyra Pamuk

Two days of heavy air strikes by U.S. warplanes have slowed an advance by Islamic State militants against Kurdish forces defending the Syrian border town of Kobani.

Last week Turkish and U.S. officials said Islamic State were on the verge of taking Kobani from its heavily outgunned Kurdish defenders, after seizing strategic points deep inside the town.

The tempo of coalition air strikes has increased dramatically, with U.S. fighter and bomber planes carrying out 14 raids against Islamic State targets near Kobani on Wednesday and Thursday, the U.S. military's Central Command said.

The strikes had seen the militants' advance slow, but "the security situation on the ground in Kobani remains tenuous," the U.S. statement added.

The four-week Islamic State assault has been seen as a test of U.S. President Barack Obama's air strike strategy, and Kurdish leaders say the town cannot survive without arms and ammunition reaching the defenders, something neighbouring Turkey has so far refused to allow.

Islamic State has been keen to take the town to consolidate its position in northern Syria after seizing large amounts of territory in that country and in Iraq. A defeat in Kobani would be a major setback for the Islamists and a boost for Obama.

Heavy and light weapons fire were audible from across the border in Turkey on Thursday afternoon, with one stray mortar hitting Turkish soil close to abandoned tents, a Reuters correspondent said.

Turkish security forces moved civilians and media away from hills overlooking Kobani as the fighting raged.

Six air strikes hit eastern Kobani and there was fierce fighting between Kurdish and Islamist fighters overnight on Wednesday, but neither side made significant gains, according to the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Kurdish fighters later managed to seize a street in Kobani that had been held by militants, the Observatory said.

A journalist in Kobani said air strikes had allowed Kurdish forces to go on the offensive for the first time since Islamic State launched their assault four weeks ago.

"We walked past some (YPG) positions in the east yesterday that were held by IS only two days ago," Abdulrahman Gok told Reuters by telephone.

"Officials here say the air strikes are sufficient but ground action is needed to wipe out IS. YPG is perfectly capable of doing that but more weapons are needed."

Islamic State's Kobani offensive is one of several it has conducted after a series of lightning advances since June, which have sent shockwaves through the region and sparked alarm in western capitals.

U.S. officials have ruled out sending troops to tackle the group, but Kurdish forces have been identified as viable partners for the coalition, and Kurds in Iraq have received western arms shipments to bolster their cause. No weapons or ammunition have reached Kobani however, fighters there say.

Kurdish forces killed at least 20 Islamic State fighters on Wednesday west of Ras al-Ayn, another Syrian city on the border to the east of Kobani, the Observatory reported.

At least two YPG fighters were also killed during the clashes, in which Kurdish fighters seized Kalashnikovs, machine guns and other weaponry, The Observatory said.

SAFE ZONE

Turkey has refused to bow to pressure to aid Kobani, either by ordering in Turkish tanks and troops that line the border, or permitting weapons and ammunition to reach the town.

Ankara is reluctant to be sucked into the morass of the Syrian conflict without clear guarantees from western allies that more will be done to help repatriate 1.6 million people who have fled across the border from Syria.

Officials are also wary of arming Kobani's Kurdish defenders, who have strong links with the militant Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which has staged a decades long insurgency against the Turkish government in the country's predominantly Kurdish southeast.

Turkish officials are increasingly frustrated with criticism of their actions towards Kobani, saying they have carried the humanitarian burden from the fighting, which saw 200,000 people cross the border from the Kobani area.

They also say air strikes fail to offer a comprehensive strategy against Islamic State, which has flourished in the power vacuum created by Syria's war. Ankara blames Syrian President Bashar al-Assad for this, and wants him toppled from power, something western allies currently refuse to countenance.

Speaking on Wednesday, Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said Kurdish fighters who had fled into Turkey had been invited to return to Kobani to defend it, but had declined.

He also spelled out details for the "secure zones" that Turkey wants to be set up in Syria close to its border, so that refugees can begin to return.

Zones should be created near the city of Aleppo, which has seen some of the fiercest fighting of recent months. Others would be set up near the Turkish border in Idlib province, Hassaka, Jarablous and Kobani, Davutoglu said.

To boost legitimacy, the U.N. should enforce the zones, Davutoglu said, but failing that, the international coalition could provide the air cover needed.

"Turkey could provide all the help necessary if such protection zones are created. But when such protection zones do not exist, to ask Turkey to intervene on its own is to ask Turkey to shoulder this risk on its own."

Turkish officials are optimistic they can convince coalition partners to meet some of their demands, at which point Ankara would play a more active role, although it is unclear how long negotiations might take.

U.S. officials say creating safe zones is not a priority and NATO said last week it was not discussing such a move.

The Syrian Foreign Ministry on Wednesday reiterated Damascus' opposition to "buffer zones" - the phrase used by some Turkish officials - warning they would be a gross violation of international law, the Syrian state agency Sana reported.

"(The Syrian people) won’t allow anyone to interfere in their affairs, and are bent on defending their sovereignty,” the Foreign Ministry statement said.

(Additional reporting Seda Sezer and Dasha Afansieva in Istanbul and Oliver Holmes and Sylvia Westall in Beirut; Writing by Jonny Hogg; Editing by Giles Elgood)

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/10/ ... XD20141016

[Anthea]

BBC News Middle East

Islamic State 'being driven out of Syria's Kobane'

A Kurdish commander in Kobane has told the BBC's Kasra Naji she
hopes the city will be liberated very soon, within the next few day

The Islamic State (IS) militant group has been driven out of most of the northern Syrian town of Kobane, a Kurdish commander has told the BBC.

Baharin Kandal said IS fighters had retreated from all areas, except for two pockets of resistance in the east.

US-led air strikes have helped push back the militants, with another 14 conducted over the past 24 hours.

Meanwhile, the new UN human rights commissioner has called IS a "potentially genocidal" movement.

Zeid Ra'ad al Hussein described the group as the antithesis of human rights.

'Tenuous'

Speaking by phone, Kurdish commander Baharin Kandal told the BBC's Kasra Naji that she hoped the city would be "liberated soon".

Ms Kandal said her militia group had been receiving arms, supplies and fighters but she refused to say how, reports our correspondent, who is on the Turkish border near Kobane.

At the scene: BBC's Kasra Naji on the Turkey-Syria border

Kurdish defenders have victory in their sights. After exactly a month of fighting, they say they have driven Islamic State from most of the city.

But from a hilltop across the border in Turkey, it is clear there is still fighting going on, particularly in the north of the city. Small and heavy arms fire can be heard, as well as occasional explosions. There have also been several air strikes this afternoon by the US-led coalition.

One 32-year-old Kurdish militia commander, who leads the fighting in the east of the city, told me she hoped the city would be "fully liberated" very soon.

Her comments reflect an air of optimism here in Turkey among the Kobane refugees who are hoping to go back to their town in the next few days.

Major test

The battle for Kobane, which is also known as Ayn al-Arab, is regarded as a major test of whether the US-led coalition's air campaign can push back IS.

US Central Command said that bomber and fighter aircraft had conducted 14 air strikes on Wednesday and Thursday, all of them targeting IS around Kobane.

The strikes "successfully struck 19 IS buildings, two IS command posts, three IS fighting positions, three IS sniper positions, one IS staging location and one IS heavy machine gun", a statement said.

It said the air strikes had "continued to slow IS advances, but that the security situation on the ground in Kobane remains tenuous".

A Kurdish official in Kobane, Idris Nassen, confirmed to Agence France-Presse that IS had pulled back from some areas and that "the international coalition has fought IS more effectively during the last few days".

But he warned: "We need more air strikes, as well as weaponry and ammunition to fight them on the ground."

Meanwhile, Zeid Ra'ad al Hussein, the new UN human rights commissioner, described IS as the antithesis of human rights and "a diabolical, potentially genocidal movement".

He said: "The way it has spread its tentacles into other countries, employing social media and the internet to brainwash and recruit people from across the globe, reveals it to be the product of a perverse and lethal marriage of a new form of nihilism with the digital age."

Activists say more than 600 people have been killed since the jihadist group launched its assault on Kobane a month ago.

More than 160,000 people have fled the mainly Kurdish town in the face of the IS advance.

Capturing the town would give the group unbroken control of a long stretch of the Syrian-Turkish border.

IS fighters, who have seized large areas in Syria and Iraq, have gained a reputation for brutal tactics, including mass killings and beheadings of soldiers and journalists.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-29647314