ISIS- SYRIA-THREAD

[Anthea]

Firat News

ISIS gangs have set alight the Kurdish Red Crescent building on the Aleppo road to the south of Kobanê.

ANHA (Hawar News Agency) reporters stated that after clashes between the YPG (People's Protection Units) and ISIS gangs, the gangs had suffered heavy losses. After this, the ISIS gangs burned down the humanitarian aid store of the Kurdish Red Crescent (Heyva Sor) on the Aleppo road to the south of Kobanê.

The store was used by the Red Crescent to protect and preserve aid materials. It was reported that medical equipment, medicine and a substantial amount of infant food was in the store.

http://en.firatajans.com/news/news/isis ... J0.twitter

[Anthea]

Telegraph

Isil advance: Watch live coverage of the
Turkey border with Syria near embattled Kobane

Watch a live video feed from Turkey's southeastern province of Sanliurfa near the key Syrian border town of Kobane, which Jihadists have been trying to seize for weeks. The town was the scene of continued fighting over the weekend:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldne ... obane.html

Kurdish defence forces in Kobane managed to repel Islamic State jihadists on Saturday morning after a night of heavy clashes.

More intense fighting followed on Sunday, when a pall of black smoke hung over the strategic town as the British-based monitoring group, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, reported heavy jihadist losses.

Islamic State fighters poured in reinforcements and fired at least 11 rocket-propelled grenades into the town centre.

The fall of Kobane to Islamic State would mark a major victory for the jihadists, who are fighting for a long stretch of the border with Turkey for their self-proclaimed "Islamic caliphate".

The video below, posted online on Friday by a group affiliated with the Islamic State, purports to show the militants engaged in gunfire inside the besieged town.

At least 500 people, more than half of them jihadists, have been killed in and around Kobane since mid-September, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkish president, warned the strategically important town was "about to fall", saying a ground operation was needed to defeat the militants.

[Anthea]

Euro News

Turkish officials deny offering to let US use their airbases



Turkish officials said on Monday afternoon that no agreement had been reached on coalition forces using their airbases for strikes against ISIL.

Earlier, United States National Security Adviser Susan Rice had announced Turkey would let its Incirlik air base be used.

Sources at the Turkish prime minister’s office confirmed talks on the subject were ongoing and added they had reached a deal with Washington to train moderate Syrian rebels.

Meanwhile the US and Saudi Arabia launched fresh airstrikes against Islamic State targets near the besieged town of Kobani in Syria. They are understood to have hit units and destroyed a machine gun firing position.

Intense fighting continues between Kurdish troops and ISIl extremists.The jihadists have laid siege to the town for nearly four weeks and fought their way into it in recent days.They are now understood to have control of almost half of the town.

http://www.euronews.com/2014/10/13/turk ... -airbases/

[Anthea]

Al Jazeera

Kobane Kurds: Sacrificed for political expediency?

Syrian Kurds feel betrayed by 'fair-weather friends'
and regional forces bent on quashing their autonomy.
Opinion by Kani Xulam


Kobane's Kurds have no intention of fading away from the scene, writes Xulam

"Let everyone know that we will resist to our last drop of blood together with the Kurdish youth who have come [to us] from the four sides of Kurdistan. If necessary, we will repeat the [example] of Stalingrad … in Kobane."

These were the words of Polat Can, spokesperson for the Kurdish People's Protection Unit (YPG) and a commander in the ongoing battle against ISIL fighters in the northern Syrian town of Kobane.

As these lines are written, the Kurdish resistance is still holding on, and with a little bit of help from Turkey, the Kurdish-majority town might be able to repeat the heroic example of the Russian city in World War II.

So far, however, Turkish help has been sporadic and half-hearted.

US President Barack Obama solemnly promised to "degrade and destroy" ISIL. Instead, he has allowed the extremist group to "degrade and destroy" Kurdish self-rule in Kobane.

The promised US assistance has been too little too late - pinprick bombings instead of pulverising missions to halt ISIL's advance. If anything, it has stirred up a hornet's nest rather than destroy the group.

Kurds in Kobane feel betrayed. They've fought valiantly to help the US destroy ISIL. Did they not rush in from the mountains of Kandil in August, as ISIL fighters tried to conquer the Iraqi Kurdish regional capital, Erbil? The result: ISIL fighters retreated and abandoned the districts of Makhmur and Gwer, as well as the strategic Mosul Dam.

Now, when embattled Kurds need help, having been pounded for weeks in Kobane and with ISIL's black flag dominating the skyline on Mistenur hill, a stone's throw from the city, they haven't received it.

Political correctness

Indeed, political correctness appears to salute ISIL's black flag. US-led coalition forces refuse to coordinate their attacks with the Kurds, despite repeated requests, lest they rattle the regional bigots who masquerade as practitioners of realpolitik.

These fair-weather friends appear to want to see ISIL fighters crush the Kurdish resistance as a favour to Ankara. With friends like these, freedom needs no enemies.

Kurds must mournfully ask: Is this indecisiveness now the official policy of coalition forces as well?

The international community has tolerated the atrocities of Middle Eastern dictators for years under the pretext of respecting the sovereignty of states - nevermind that these tyrants were ruthlessly raining bullets or poisonous gas on innocent civilians, as Saddam Hussein did on the Kurds of Halabja in 1988 and Assad senior did to protesters in Hama in 1982.

Today, these states have become the incubator of ISIL, whose tentacles stretch far beyond the region. And Kurds, as always, are tragically trapped in the middle.

Syrian Kurds tried to help the forces of freedom during the "Arab Spring" by declaring autonomy from Damascus over three northern Syrian regions with Kurdish majority populations. They drafted a constitution and held free and fair elections. This experiment in self-rule naturally caused consternation in Ankara, which has tried to undermine it ever since.

In Turkey, where nearly half of the world's Kurdish population lives, the Kurds took to the streets and demanded an immediate halt to what they claim are Ankara's deceitful dealings with ISIL. Turkish police responded with brutal violence - killing 31 protesters and declaring martial law in six cities.

This is what Bashar al-Assad did in Syria and Hosni Mubarak did in Egypt. Yet Turkey still shamelessly peddles the same old lie that it is a country of laws and Kurds have as much rights as Turks do.

Are the Kurds - the most dependable fighters against ISIL - to now be sacrificed upon the altar of political expediency?

Despite little or no help from the outside world, Kobane's Kurds have no intention of fading away from the scene. Their cause has galvanised Kurds throughout the region and beyond.

The same old lie

Unfortunately, many in the West buy the nonsense peddled by Turkey now.

Across the Syrian border in NATO-ally Turkey, one high-ranking Turkish civil servant recently told Turkish journalist Ahu Ozyurt: "[ISIL] are like us, fighting against seven great powers, [as we did] in [our] war of Independence."

Another one peevishly added, "Rather than the PKK, I would rather have ISIL as a neighbour."

If Kobane falls, the unnamed Turkish civil servants will have their ISIL next door - and I am afraid something even worse than their "seven great powers" - that's how Turkish nationalists describe the allied powers of World War I.

The fight to the "last drop of blood" that Polat vowed to wage, rages on. The Prime Minister of Kobane, Anwar Moslem, asked for international help on October 8: "I want everyone to know that the fall of Kobane would be the fall of humanity. I therefore appeal to everyone to stand up for Kobane and stand with us in these very difficult days."

That clarion call has yet to reach its intended target. Let's hope it will do so soon, and Kobane will be remembered as a modern-day Stalingrad.

Kani Xulam is director of the American Kurdish Information Network (AKIN) in Washington, DC, and a commentator on Kurdish affairs.
The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera's editorial policy.

http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinio ... 76205.html

[Anthea]

Mail Online

Now ISIS is under attack from guerrillas itself: Ultra-secret White Shroud
group strike fear into terrorists by picking off fighters one by one

Small groups of Syrians are hunting down ISIS fighters in Syrian stronghold
New guerrilla campaign has emerged in response to ISIS's growing brutality
White Shroud 'has killed more than 100 ISIS fighters in attacks in Deir al-Zor'
Head of group Abu Aboud says its main aim is to generate fear in ISIS ranks

By Mark Duell

Terrorist organisation Islamic State is now under attack from guerrillas itself, it was revealed today,

Small groups of Syrians are hunting down ISIS fighters in one of their main strongholds in eastern Syria in a new guerrilla campaign that has emerged as a response to the Islamists' growing brutality.

The main aim is to generate fear in ISIS’s ranks, said the head of ‘White Shroud’ - a group that says it has killed more than 100 of the militants' fighters in attacks in Deir al-Zor province in recent months.

As the US advances plans to train and equip the moderate opposition to President Bashar al-Assad as part of its strategy to tackle ISIS, these groups shows how there are new enemies on the ground.

White Shroud is a reference to the death shroud it says awaits ISIS fighters responsible for crimes against the Syrian people, according to the group leader, who gives his name as Abu Aboud.

Mr Aboud - not his real name - was a commander in an anti-Assad insurgent group crushed by the better armed and financed ISIS as it seized almost full control of Deir al-Zor earlier this year.

The small band he now leads is in no position to deal a major blow to ISIS. But it does pose an extra challenge as the U.S. and its allies target the group in air strikes in both Syria and Iraq.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which tracks the war, has recorded a rising number of attacks by gunmen on ISIS targets in Deir al-Zor province.

Together with Raqqa province further north, Deir al-Zor forms the bedrock of ISIS’s influence in Syria.

White Shroud shows no mercy to ISIS: when it manages to abduct one of its members, it is only to ‘liquidate’ him later on, said Mr Abou.

It operates in and around the town of Al Bukamal at the Iraqi border, an area of crucial importance to ISIS as the link between the territory it controls in Syria and Iraq. The group currently numbers 300 members, said Mr Aboud.

He added: ‘Eighty per cent of the members of White Shroud did not take part in combat before (ISIS) came. We trained them and they joined White Shroud because of the great oppression they felt after Islamic State took control.’

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says White Shroud is one of several small groups that have taken up arms against ISIS in Deir al-Zor province in recent months and are picking off ISIS fighters whenever they get the chance.

They have all taken similarly menacing names. These include the ‘Phantom Brigade’ and ‘The Brigade of the Angel of Death’, said Rami Abdulrahman, who runs the Observatory, which says it gathers information from sources on all sides of the conflict.

One such group killed no fewer than 10 ISIS fighters in a nighttime gun attack on a checkpoint in the town of Al Mayadin in Deir al-Zor province last Thursday, the Observatory reported.

In a separate attack, a gunman on a motor bike opened fire on another ISIS checkpoint. ‘There is an increase in their operations against Islamic State,’ Mr Abdulrahman said.

ISIS has made plenty of enemies during its conquest of Deir al-Zor, an oil-producing region.

It expelled most other insurgent groups from Deir al-Zor in July, emboldened by rapid gains in Iraq where it seized the city of Mosul in June, capturing with it Iraqi army equipment that has been deployed in Syria.

Mirroring its approach elsewhere, ISIS has used crucifixions and decapitations to suppress all opposition in Deir al-Zor.

It executed 700 members of one rebellious tribe, the Sheitaat, in August, the Observatory reported.

Members of anti-Assad armed groups loosely referred to as the ‘Free Syrian Army’ had the choice of fleeing, submitting to ISIS rule, or death.

The Nusra Front, Al Qaeda's official affiliate in Deir al-Zor, withdrew from the province. The Syrian government still controls a portion of Deir al-Zor city and its airport.

‘Secrecy is the most important element of White Shroud's work,’ said Mr Aboud. The group comprises four-man ‘cells’ that work independently of each other, he added.

One of White Shroud's biggest operations was an attack on an ISIS position in Al Bukamal in which around 11 ISIS fighters were killed, according to the Observatory and Mr Aboud.

The U.S.-led air strikes are not making White Shroud's job easier, said Mr Aboud. Where ISIS fighters once used to gather in large numbers, they now move in small groups, often at night, using motor bikes.

White Shroud's spokesman said the group is using weapons that formerly belonged to anti-Assad rebel groups.

The spokesman, who gave his name as Abu Ali Albukamali, claimed that despite its modest resources, White Shroud had achieved its goal.

He said: ‘The aim of this group - spreading fear among Islamic State members - has been realised. Today, you never meet them walking alone. They mostly move in groups, afraid of abduction.’

Article and Video:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... e-one.html

[Anthea]

Reuters

Turkey's Kurdish peace process at risk amid fury over Syrian town
By Humeyra Pamuk

Windows shattered by looting protesters, the largest city in Turkey's mainly Kurdish southeast shows plenty of signs of the violence that swept it last week, but optimism over a fragile peace process with Kurdish guerrillas is far harder to find.

There are fears that the fate of the border town of Kobani in neighboring Syria could wreck efforts by the Turkish government to end a three decades long insurgency by the militants, and tip Turkey back into a conflict that has cost 40,000 lives.

Many of Turkey's 15 million Kurds have reacted with fury over the fate of mainly Kurdish Kobani, under assault by Islamic State for nearly a month while Turkish troops look on.

Last week at least 35 people were killed as Kurdish protests in solidarity with Kobani turned violent, with Diyarbakir at the center of the bloodletting.

Kurds say that fury over Ankara's failure to intervene could spin out of control in spite of efforts by the government or jailed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Ocalan to continue with peace talks aimed at ending the uprising.

"If Kobani falls, the peace process will be history. And if Kobani falls, the people will not listen to calls for calm, from whomever they come," said chain-smoking Ibrahim, 29, in a tea house in Diyarbakir's poor Baglar district, a PKK hotbed.

Days earlier, the streets of Baglar were filled with tear gas as police clashed with protesters. The area briefly became a no-go zone for security forces, and armored vehicles were deployed to quell the unrest.

A police officer told Reuters the rage of the protesters was like nothing he had seen in 20 years working in the region.

"They attack like they have nothing to lose. There seems to be an immense amount of hate and anger," he said. "They’re looting. They burn, break, destroy. The state and everything that represents the state seems to be their enemy."

The unrest is a serious blow to President Tayyip Erdogan, who has invested considerable political capital in repairing Turkey's relations with its Kurds.

Decades of oppression by nationalist governments in Ankara had aimed to suppress Kurdish culture, prompting a violent response by Kurdish militants and creating deep ethnic wounds within Turkey which Erdogan has vowed to heal.

He has pushed through cultural reforms and abolished laws banning the Kurdish language in Turkey.

Around half of Kurds vote for Erdogan's ruling AK Party and the peace process has been a major part of his political vision.

But Ankara's failure to intervene militarily or allow weapons to be sent to Kobani's defenders has caused mistrust, and fueled rumors that Turkey secretly supports Islamic State.

"SERIOUS GAMBLE"

Denials by Ankara have failed to quell a widespread belief in southeast Turkey that a policy of supporting opposition groups in Syria to bring down Syrian President Bashar al-Assad means they are helping the radical Islamist group.

"It's not even questioned. If you base your thinking on that, and build on top of all these grievances over the last few years (including Kobani), then you've got the makings of fresh conflict," Aaron Stein, associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute, told Reuters.

Stein believes that Turkey calculates that it is better to alienate the Kurds now and patch things up later than be sucked into the Syria conflict over Kobani, and that the Kurds are currently too weak to re-ignite hostilities with Turkey.

But the threat of renewed conflict was underlined at the weekend by senior PKK commander Cemil Bayik, who warned that the group would relaunch its war with Turkey if it fails to intervene in Kobani.

"(Turkish officials) are hoping that they'll be able to weather the storm, but I think that's shortsighted, its a serious gamble which could risk the whole peace process," Stein added.

Ocalan, who has spent the last 15 years in prison, has worked hard to keep the peace process on track amid sporadic violence in the southeast this year.

But many Kurds in Diyarbakir said frustrations at the slow progress of negotiations mean Ocalan's star is waning, and people are more likely to listen to PKK leaders in the Qandil region of Iraq, who have become disenchanted with the process.

"If Qandil said 'get ready we will go back to fighting in six months', the people would not hesitate for a minute," said Ali, 39, a father of four.

In a sign that he too senses that pressure is mounting, Ocalan warned in his latest comments that the government had until Oct. 15 to take steps to advance the talks, but it may not be enough, according to Ali.

"The peace process has no credibility left," he said, sipping a glass of tea in one of Diyarbakir's many tea houses.

"If the process continues in this way … these tensions could result in a civil war. These people are ready to take up arms against this state," he said.

RETURN TO 1990S VIOLENCE?

The fate of Kobani may be putting fresh strain on peace talks, but they were hardly in the best of health before Islamic State's brutal advance on Kurdish positions, according to Fadi Hakura, Turkey expert at London think-tank Chatham House.

"Even prior to Kobani the peace process has not produced many substantive concessions. So far it's been more about the process than the peace," he told Reuters.

"Kobani will greatly complicate a very delicate process and have a major impact on its durability, particularly as the fight for Kobani has involved fighters closely linked to the PKK."

Erdogan has made clear that the presence of PKK fighters at the defense of Kobani is a stumbling block to helping the town.

Last week he said he saw no difference between the PKK and Islamic State, and has said Turkey will not aid "terrorists."

Turkey is also determined not to be sucked into the Syrian civil war without assurances that western partners will help topple Assad, his implacable foe.

Syrian Kurds maintained an ambivalent relationship with Damascus, and they shunned the opposition coalition in return for being largely left alone by Damascus.

The creation of three self-declared autonomous Kurdish "cantons" in Syria last year, one of them at Kobani, further deepened mistrust in Ankara.

Despite all the problems, Erdogan launched an impassioned defense of the peace process over the weekend.

"I have put ... my body, my being into it. No matter what the consequences will be ... to build peace and stability, I will continue to struggle until my last breath," he said.

There were signs on Monday that the Ankara is aware of the urgency, when a pro-Kurdish MP said his party had received a one page road map on the peace process from the government. No further details were given.

But with record numbers joining the PKK, according to Kurdish officials, and Kobani testing already strained relations, Turkey risks renewed ethnic violence, Ibrahim said.

"If people take to the streets again, it would be much worse than the 1990s. These people are really not afraid to die."

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/10/ ... G620141013

[Anthea]

CNN

The battle for a key Syrian city on the Turkish border intensified Monday as ISIS continued its push for control of Kobani while also scoring a victory in neighboring Iraq, taking a strategically important military base in Anbar province.

A fighter from the Kurdish People's Protection Unit, or YPG, told CNN's Arwa Damon that the battle in Kobani concerned the main border crossing into Turkey. If ISIS took control, he said, "it's over."

The fighter said the Kurdish fighters had pushed back an attempted advance by ISIS on Monday morning but that it would be "impossible" for them to hold their ground if current conditions continued.

Should they take Kobani, the militants would control three official border crossings between Turkey and Syria and a stretch of the border about 60 miles (97 kilometers) long.

Monday has been one of the most violent days in Kobani since ISIS launched its assault on the Syrian city, with sounds of fierce fighting, including gunfire and explosions, CNN staff on the Syria-Turkey border said.

CNN's Nick Paton Walsh described seeing a mushroom cloud rising about 100 meters (nearly 330 feet) above the city in an area targeted by at least four blasts, generally after the sound of jets overhead.

"However, it remains unclear who is gaining the upper hand," Walsh said. "Distribution of the airstrikes does not immediately suggest the Kurds are retaking the center so far."

The U.S. military said it and its partners had attacked ISIS on Sunday and Monday, launching four airstrikes southwest of Kobani, three northeast of the city and one northwest of Raqqa, Syria.

"Fighter aircraft from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia participated in these airstrikes. All aircraft exited the strike areas safely," the military said in a statement.

U.S. national security adviser Susan Rice said Sunday that Turkey had agreed to allow the United States and its partners to use bases and territory to train.

"They have said that their facilities inside Turkey can be used by coalition forces, American and otherwise, to engage in activities inside Iraq and Syria," Rice told NBC's "Meet the Press."

"That's a new commitment and one that we very much welcome," she said.

However, Turkey's semiofficial Anadolu Agency quoted the country's foreign minister as saying Monday: "Turkey has not made any decision on whether to open its Incirlik airbase" to coalition forces in the fight against the militant group.

Read: Turkey willing to put troops in Syria 'if others do their part'

Iraqi forces abandon base

Despite airstrikes by the United States and its allies in Iraq over the weekend, reports suggest ISIS has continued to gain ground in Anbar province and has encircled Haditha, the province's last large town not yet under its control.

Provincial security force sources told CNN on Monday that Iraqi forces had abandoned a strategically important base in Anbar after heavy fighting with the militants.

The base outside Hit was one of the Shiite-led government's few remaining military outposts in Anbar, a predominantly Sunni province. It is a key control point for roads running through the region.

The Iraqi military still controls the Ayn al-Asad military base, which helps defend Iraq's second-largest dam and the provincial capital of Ramadi.

About 80% of Anbar is under ISIS control, according to Sabah Al-Karhout, president of the Anbar Provincial Council. The group's presence has been bolstered by as many as 10,000 fighters, dispatched from Syria and northern Iraq, the provincial council said. Anbar is about the size of North Dakota.

On Sunday, the leader of U.S. military efforts to fight ISIS in Iraq said the terror group came within 25 kilometers (15.5 miles) of Baghdad's airport.

From Baghdad area to Raqqa, Syria

Should all of Anbar fall, the Sunni extremists would rule from the perimeter of Iraq's capital to Raqqa in Syria, at least, according to the deputy head of the provincial council, Falleh al-Issawi. ISIS would control a swath 350 miles (563 kilometers) long.

Anbar leaders on Saturday appealed for U.S. ground forces to help them fight ISIS, but Baghdad said it had not received any official request.

The Iraqi government has been adamant that it does not want U.S. forces on the ground, and President Barack Obama has not shown any intent to deploy any.

In new violence Monday evening, three explosions rocked three predominantly Shiite neighborhoods in Baghdad, killing at least 17 people and injuring 59 others, security and medical sources told CNN.

In the first, an improvised explosive device detonated in Sadr City, killing six people and wounding 24. A suicide attack at the entrance to the Khadimiya neighborhood in northern Baghdad left nine dead and 29 injured. In a third blast, a car bomb attack in northern Baghdad killed two people and wounded six others.

Also Monday, a motorcycle with explosives was detonated in front of a restaurant in Kirkuk. One civilian and two police officers died in the explosion in the northern Iraqi city's Al-Qadissia section, said two government officials who could not be named for security reasons.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the explosion.

Link to full Article & Video:

http://edition.cnn.com/2014/10/13/world ... index.html

[Anthea]

Reuters

Syrian Kurds get arms from Iraq, but cannot send them to Kobani

Syrian Kurds have received a "symbolic" amount of military aid from Iraq's Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) that is meant for Kobani but is stuck in northeastern Syria because Turkey will not open an aid corridor, a Syrian Kurdish official said.

The aid designed to help in the Kurdish fight against Islamic State in Kobani, also known as Ayn al-Arab, includes ammunition for light weapons and mortar shells, said Alan Othman, media official in the Syrian Kurdish military council in the northeastern Syria, speaking to Reuters via Skype.

"It is a symbolic shipment that has remained in the Jazeera canton," he said, using the Kurdish name for northeastern Syria.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/10/ ... U420141014

Anthea: prior to this KRG had asked Turkey for permission to allow the Peshmerga to pass through Turkish land and enter Kobani - Turkey has repeatedly refused permission

[Anthea]

BBC News Middle East

Islamic State crisis: Kurds 'recapture key Kobane hill'

Kurdish fighters battling Islamic State (IS) say they have recaptured a strategically important hilltop west of Kobane on Syria's border with Turkey.

The advances were made after a series of air strikes by the US-led coalition.

The hill, Tall Shair, was captured more than 10 days ago by IS militants, who have besieged the area for a month.

Later on Tuesday, US President Barack Obama will hold talks with military chiefs from more than 20 countries on how to combat IS in Syria and Iraq.

Correspondents say the meeting in Washington is the first time such high-ranking military officials from so many countries have come together since the US-led coalition was formed last month.

Suicide bombings

The battle for Kobane, a predominantly Kurdish town, has emerged as a major test of whether the coalition's air campaign can push back IS.

Two weeks of air strikes against IS targets in and around Kobane have allowed Kurdish fighters to slow the jihadists' advance, but Turkish and Western leaders have warned that the town is still likely to fall.

On Tuesday morning sources in the Kurdish Popular Protection Units (YPG) told the BBC that they had regained control of Tall Shair hill-top, about 4km (2.5 miles) to the west and near an informal border crossing.

Heavy fighting was reported in the east and south of Kobane on Monday.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based activist group, reported that IS carried out three separate suicide bomb attacks.

One IS suicide bomber blew up an explosives-filled vehicle in the north of the town, near the border, while the second targeted an eastern area where the main police station and government offices were located, it said. Later, a third bomber attacked a YPG position in the north-east.

The Observatory said it believed IS now controlled about half of Kobane.

Capturing the town, from which more than 160,000 people have fled, would give the group unbroken control of a long stretch of the Syrian-Turkish border.

Iraq 'reprisals'

Hundreds of kilometres away in western Iraq, as many as 180,000 people have been displaced by fighting between IS militants and Iraqi forces in and around the city of Hit, according to the UN.

Analysts say seizing Anbar would enable IS to establish a supply line to launch possible attacks on the capital, Baghdad.

Meanwhile, a report by campaign group Amnesty International said Shia militias in Iraq had kidnapped and killed scores of Sunni civilians in recent months in apparent revenge for IS attacks.

It said scores of unidentified bodies have been found in the cities of Baghdad, Samarra and Kirkuk, many still handcuffed and with gunshot wounds to the head, suggesting execution-style killings. Many others who disappeared remain unaccounted for, it added.

Amnesty says the militias have taken advantage of an "atmosphere of lawlessness" but the Iraqi government "must act now to rein in the militias and establish the rule of law".

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, who took office last month, has admitted to previous "excesses" by government forces and vowed to govern for all Iraqis.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-29611673
IS, which controls large swathes of territory across Syria and Iraq, captured Hit earlier this month in an advance across Anbar province.

[Anthea]

[Anthea]

YPG Women Fighters with a Captured ISIS Tank

I think they captured it themselves

[Anthea]

Roar Mag

ISIS fighter in Kobanê: “Erdoğan has helped us a lot”
by Iskender Doğu

ISIS defiant as Syria’s civil war threatens to spill over into Turkey: “Erdoğan has helped us a lot, but we don’t need him anymore. Turkey is next.”

The last glimpse I catch of Kobanê, before we are forced off the hill overlooking the town by Turkish soldiers in their armored personnel carriers, are two pillars of smoke rising from the city center. Just minutes before, two loud explosions could be heard, after which clouds of dust and debris emerged from between the buildings in the town, just across the border from Turkey.

Despite the fact that coalition jets and drones are circling overhead, invisible to the naked eyed but clearly recognizable by their humming sounds, it is clear that these were not airstrikes: the explosions appeared in an area that is still under control of the People’s and Women’s Defense Forces (YPG/YPJ), and the smoke looks different from the kind that normally follows air strikes. That leaves only one possibility: these were the explosions of two more ISIS suicide car bombs unsuccessfully attempting to break Kurdish defense lines.

Immediately after the second car explodes — either detonated by ISIS or neutralized by the YPG/YPJ — half a dozen Turkish APCs come rushing from the border towards the hill where foreign journalists and local observers have gathered to keep track of the situation in the city. The soldiers command everyone, including the media, to leave the viewpoint immediately. No explanation is given, and we quickly return to our car to make our way back to Suruç, the Turkish border town just eight kilometers away.

Solidarity from a local activist

A few days ago, in the bus back to Urfa from Suruç, a man started talking to me. Introducing himself as Müslüm, a 31-year old Kurdish activist from around Suruç, he told me about his brother, who is currently fighting with the YPG in Kobanê. Müslüm hasn’t spoken to him for over five months, as any contact with Turkish volunteers fighting with the YPG in Rojava would put him and other family members back home at risk of arrest by Turkish authorities.

“He is fighting for the canton system, for the freedom of the Kurdish people and for the freedom of all people,” Müslüm says. “The independence of Rojava is a big problem for Turkey, because its canton system is an example of what the future of Kurdistan could look like.”

Müslüm fully supports and is proud of his brother. He himself is no stranger to political activism either, having spent three years in prison for his political involvement in the Kurdish struggle. He was deported to Greek Cyprus after his release and was only allowed to return to Turkey on the condition that he would not engage in politics anymore. This doesn’t seem to bother him too much.

“The government calls me a terrorist because I speak at protests that demand democracy for the Kurdish people. They don’t like anything that has to do with freedom for the Kurdish people. But I don’t listen! Every day I am active in the Kurdish struggle. All the people here are like me.”

The Turkish government keeps track of all Kurdish activists, and Müslüm’s name appears on a special blacklist, which means that every time he gets checked by the police there is a chance they will take him down to the station. This, however, doesn’t stop him from offering me all the help I might need, and over the next few days Müslüm would go out of his way to bring me to the villages dotting the Syrian border, which are presently occupied by solidarity activists — the so-called ‘human shields’ — and off-limits to foreigners.

Discussing democratic autonomy

After the funeral of seven YPG/YPJ fighters whose bodies were brought from Kobanê to Turkey in order to be properly buried here, a large crowd gathers in the local headquarters of the pro-Kurdish Democratic Regions Party (DBP). While everyone is drinking tea and watching the latest news from Kobanê on a Kurdish channel, Ayşe Muslim — the wife of Saleh Muslim, the co-chairwoman of the Democratic Union Party (PYD) and de-facto leader of Rojava — walks in and starts shouting angrily at the men: “What are you doing here, watching television and drinking tea while our comrades in Kobanê are fighting for your freedom?! Go to the border to show your solidarity!”

Later, in the village of Measêr, where hundreds have flocked to watch the siege of Kobanê unfold, I sit down with some men at the local mosque to discuss their views on Rojava’s canton system and Öcalan’s theory of democratic autonomy. Among them is the brother of one of PKK’s highest commanders, who is happy to share some of his ideas.

“The canton system and the project of democratic autonomy is not just a Kurdish project,” he says. “The idea is that it facilitates the communal life of people of different religious, ethnic and linguistic backgrounds. Yes, the PKK fought for national independence before, but this was in the period of the Cold War. After the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the communist-socialist block, we have come to realize that one country with one government is not the right solution.”

With the explosions in Kobanê clearly audible in the background, more and more men join the discussion. “Last year Barzani [the conservative leader of Iraqi Kurdistan] called for the unification of all Kurdish people in one single country,” one man adds. “But the PKK disagrees with this plan, because such a state will eventually be no different from the Turkish Republic. The Kurds have many different religions and we speak many different languages. How could we unite ourselves under one single government?”

The men agree that, given the strength of the Turkish state and military, the widespread adoption of a canton system like Rojava’s is still far off. Still they see democratic autonomy as the only real alternative. “We don’t need professional politicians, but rather want the people to make decisions about their own lives, based on consensus and by means of local councils.”

Just outside the village, in the shadow of the military base that covers the small hill overlooking Measêr on the one side, and the Syrian border on the other, I meet with Sabri Altinel. This veteran of the DBP is having a chat with his teacher-friend who came from the city of Kars to show his solidarity with the people of Kobanê. Altinel smilingly conveys to me that “now everybody here is an anarchist. We’re against ISIS as well as against the Turkish state.”

Red line Kobanê

Several days ago, Abdullah Öcalan, the jailed leader of the PKK, presented the Turkish state with a deadline to act on peace with the country’s Kurdish population. “We can await a resolution till October 15, after which there is nothing we can do,” his statement read. “They (the Turkish authorities) are talking about resolution and negotiation but there exists no such thing. This is an artificial situation; we will not be able to continue anymore.”

The men of Measêr fully support Öcalan’s statement, because they are fed up with being stalled by the Turkish government, which keeps bringing up the issue of the Kurdish peace process every time an election peeks around the corner, but which, when pushes comes to shove, consistently fails to act upon its promises. They believe Öcalan set the deadline so that the implementation of promises made in the negotiations so far can no longer be postponed — and in light of the events in Kobanê, the government will be forced to reveal its true face.

“Kobanê is everything,” the PKK commander’s brother states. “Kobanê is the red line: for the PKK, for Öcalan, for the Kurdish people, for everyone. Without Kobanê we can’t talk about anything.”

The general opinion of the Kurds and their supporters here at the border is that the Turkish government has had a hand in ISIS’ assault on Kobanê. This rumor was confirmed by a member of ISIS with whom we spoke on the phone, a mere two hundred meters from the border with Syria.

My friend Murat and I were walking through the fields when we met a man who explained to us that he had just escaped from Kobanê. He told us how, two days before, he had tried to call a friend who was fighting with the Women’s Defense Forces. But instead of his friend answering, an unknown man picked up the phone and told him that his friend was dead — killed by ISIS — and that this phone now belonged to him.

Murat encouraged the man to try and call the number again, and after it rang a number of times, the same man picked up. Our friend spoke to the ISIS fighter for a while, in Arabic, and then asked him: “how is your friend Erdoğan doing?” The reply confirmed what many here have been suspecting all along: “Erdoğan has helped us a lot in the past. He has given us Kobanê. But now we don’t need him anymore. After Kobanê, Turkey is next!”

The PKK’s October 15 deadline is approaching fast, and with the border still closed for any material or logistical support for the Kurdish defenders of the city, the likelihood of a new civil war in Turkey becomes greater every day. The men of Measêr would have preferred a political solution over violence, but realize that if the Turkish government continues to stand by idly, blocking the border as their comrades in Kobanê are being slaughtered at the hands of ISIS, they will not be left with much choice.

It therefore appears that the Syrian civil war is rapidly spilling over into Turkey, not in the last place because the majority of YPG fighters in Kobanê are reportedly from the PKK, aiding their Syrian comrades in the fight against ISIS. As news emerges of fresh Turkish airstrikes on PKK positions in the southeast of the country, it is clear that the ceasefire is rapidly breaking down. As such, the coming days will be decisive for the future of the Turkish-Kurdish peace process.

Unless the Turkish government suddenly makes a dramatic turn, opening the border crossing to Kobanê and supporting the Kurdish resistance against ISIS, it will be difficult to prevent a further escalation of violence in the region.

Iskender Doğu is an Istanbul-based freelance writer, activist and an editor for ROAR Magazine. You can follow him on Twitter via @Le_Frique.

http://roarmag.org/2014/10/turkey-kurdi ... -autonomy/

[Anthea]

The Independent

Isis in Kobani: Black flag torn down as Kurdish fighters capture hill overlooking Kobani in symbolic victory over militant group



The black flag of Isis has been torn down from a hill overlooking the town of Kobani after it was captured by Kurdish fighters.

The symbolic move came after the US-led coalition launched a series of 21 air strikes on Isis positions in and around the besieged town.

Kurdish fighters captured the hill of Tel Shair after it was targeted by one of the coalition air strikes, a Kurdish official has said.

Isis still controls more than a third of the predominantly Kurdish town, where the battle continues to rage despite more than two weeks of air strikes by the coalition.

Isis militants last week raised two black flags at the town's eastern entrance, one over a building and another on a hill.

The US Defence Department today said the US-led coalition launched a total of 22 air strikes on Isis positions in Syria, with all but one targeting sites in and around Kobani.

"Over the past night there have been very intense airstrikes by the coalition that targeted several Daesh positions in and near Kobani," said Idriss Nassan, deputy head of Kobani's foreign relations committee, using an Arabic acronym to refer to the Islamic State group.

Nassan said one of the air strikes targeted the Tel Shair hill, which was then captured taken by Kurdish fighters who brought down the black flag.

More than 500 people have been killed during the fighting in and around Kobani, mostly fighters from both sides, while more than 200,000 people have been forced to flee across the border into Turkey.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world ... 94641.html

[Anthea]

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

[Anthea]

Bloomberg

Death Wishes Leave Kurd Mothers Warning of Kobani Revenge
By Selcan Hacaoglu

After losing one child on the battlefield, Bedia Gokguz might now lose another.

Her teenage daughter, a Kurdish rebel fighter, was killed two years ago in clashes with Turkish forces. Her 17-year-old son, Mazlum, has decided to follow a similar path as Islamic State militants pound the Syrian city of Kobani, a key Kurdish stronghold in the country.

“He said: ‘I’ll either die on the streets of Istanbul or in Kobani,’” Gokguz, 48, said on Oct. 11 as she paid her respects at a funeral of two Kurdish fighters killed as they defended Kobani. “I couldn’t stop him.”

As Kurds blame Turkey for failing to come to their aid as they cling on to the city, the stakes are getting raised. More than 30 people have been killed this month in clashes across southeast Turkey, while President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says the protests are designed to undermine the government.

Kurdish fighters in Kobani are largely members of the YPG, an affiliate of the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, the separatist group long viewed as Turkey’s top security threat and classified as terrorists by the U.S. and European Union.

While Abdullah Ocalan, the imprisoned PKK leader, called for restraint among his supporters, there’s no guarantee that everybody will listen if Islamic State captured Kobani, said Faysal Sariyildiz, a Kurdish lawmaker in the Turkish Parliament.

“Everything will be upside down,” Sariyildiz said as he toured villages on the Turkish side of the border with Syria opposite Kobani two days ago.

Explosive Situation

Turkish warplanes bombed PKK targets yesterday in the southeastern town of Daglica near the border with Iran, according to the Hurriyet newspaper. The airstrikes, the first since peace talks started last year, came after after rebels attacked military barracks in the area, the newspaper said, without saying how it obtained the information.

Gokguz used to support peace talks with Turkish authorities to win more rights for the Kurds. If Kobani falls because of inaction to repel Islamic State, “each of us will become a bomb and explode,” she said, standing next to a freshly dug grave of a Kurdish fighter. “Everywhere in Turkey will become Kobani.”

Mortar Rounds

The risk of the city’s collapse increased this week as Islamic State, formerly known as Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant, or ISIL, pressed to capture a border crossing with Turkey to cut off Kobani’s only link with the outside world. Airstrikes by the U.S.-led coalition have failed to bring an end to the group’s onslaught, which started last month.

“We have not received any weapons or munitions from anyone,” Dicle Kobani, a female Kurdish rebel commander, said as automatic gunfire and frantic radio conversations echoed on the phone. “Airstrikes only help to a certain degree. We have a few mortar rounds left.”

Islamic State’s onslaught has forced thousands of civilians to flee their homes into Turkey. The fall of Kobani would deliver a blow to the autonomous administration that Syria’s Kurds established as the government of President Bashar al-Assad lost control of large swathes of land to rebels during three years of civil war.

U.S. Coalition

The Turkish government has said its troops won’t participate in military operations in Syria unless they’re part of a plan to depose Assad. U.S. National Security Adviser Susan Rice said on Oct. 12 that Turkey will help train Syrian rebels and allow use of its military bases as part of the coalition campaign against Islamic State.

Kurdish leaders, including Ocalan, have also urged the government to accelerate peace talks to defuse Kurdish anger over Kobani, which Erdogan and Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu say is being used as a pretext to destabilize Turkey.

“What does Kobani have to do with Turkey?” Erdogan said in an Oct. 11 speech. “What does it have to do with Istanbul, with Ankara? What does Kobani have to do with Siirt, Diyarbakir or Bingol?” he said, naming several Kurdish-majority cities.

While Erdogan weathered repeated attacks over the past two years, including nationwide protest movements, the Kurdish backlash may present a tougher challenge, said Soner Cagaptay, author of “The Rise of Turkey: The 21st Century’s First Muslim Power” and a research director at the Washington Institute.

“The PKK is capable of executing more violence on the streets than any other organization,” Cagaptay said. “We didn’t hit rock bottom yet.”

Kobani Defenders

Hundreds of Kurdish fighters have crossed the border to join the defense of Kobani, evading Turkey’s restrictions, said Ibrahim Kurdo, a local official in the town. Perihan Akbulut, who was also attending the funeral of the Kurdish fighters, said her 26-year-old daughter, Zilan, was one of them.

“She has been in the mountains for a decade,” Akbulut said of her daughter, a PKK rebel. Like Gokguz’s son, she called her mother to say that she’s unlikely to hear from her again.

Both mothers joined other standing mourners at the funeral, holding red, yellow and green PKK banners, to flash V-signs and chant a Kurdish rebel march in unison.

When a bulldozer began dumping soil on the graves, next to about 20 others buried over the past 10 days, the stench of rotting flesh filled the air. As the dust settled, a man wrote their names on makeshift grave stones with red paint.

“We are tired of holding funerals every day,” said Emine Arslan, as she sat next to the grave of her 26-year-old son, Deniz, who was shot above his left eyebrow by an Islamic State sniper near Kobani two months ago. “We’ve been screaming for help to stop this savagery but the world is deaf to our voice.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Selcan Hacaoglu in Ankara 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 ... venge.html