Thursday 9 October 2014
If Kobani falls, Kurdish fury will undoubtedly grow.
The Opinion Pages | EDITORIAL
Mr. Erdogan’s Dangerous Game
Turkey’s Refusal to Fight ISIS Hurts the Kurds
By THE EDITORIAL BOARDOCT. 8, 2014
Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, once aspired to lead the Muslim world. At this time of regional crisis, he has been anything but a leader. Turkish troops and tanks have been standing passively behind a chicken-wire border fence while a mile away in Syria, Islamic extremists are besieging the town of Kobani and its Kurdish population.
This is an indictment of Mr. Erdogan and his cynical political calculations. By keeping his forces on the sidelines and refusing to help in other ways — like allowing Kurdish fighters to pass through Turkey — he seeks not only to weaken the Kurds, but also, in a test of will with President Obama, to force the United States to help him oust President Bashar al-Assad of Syria, whom he detests.
It is also evidence of the confusion and internal tensions that affect Mr. Obama’s work-in-progress strategy to degrade and defeat the Islamic State, the Sunni Muslim extremist group also called ISIS or ISIL. Kurdish fighters in Kobani have been struggling for weeks to repel the Islamic State. To help, the Americans stepped up airstrikes that began to push the ISIS fighters back, although gun battles and explosions continued on Wednesday.
But all sides — the Americans, Mr. Erdogan and the Kurds — agree that ground forces are necessary to capitalize on the air power. No dice, says Mr. Erdogan, unless the United States provides more support to rebels trying to overthrow Mr. Assad and creates a no-fly zone to deter the Syrian Air Force as well as a buffer zone along the Turkish border to shelter thousands of Syrian refugees who have fled the fighting.
No one can deny Mr. Assad’s brutality in the civil war, but Mr. Obama has rightly resisted involvement in that war and has insisted that the focus should be on degrading ISIS, not going after the Syrian leader. The biggest risk in his decision to attack ISIS in Syria from the air is that it could put America on a slippery slope to a war that he has otherwise sought to avoid.
Mr. Erdogan’s behavior is hardly worthy of a NATO ally. He was so eager to oust Mr. Assad that he enabled ISIS and other militants by allowing fighters, weapons and revenues to flow through Turkey. If Mr. Erdogan refuses to defend Kobani and seriously join the fight against the Islamic State, he will further enable a savage terrorist group and ensure a poisonous long-term instability on his border.
He has also complicated his standing at home. His hesitation in helping the Syrian Kurds has enraged Turkey’s Kurdish minority, which staged protests against the Turkish government on Wednesday that reportedly led to the deaths of 21 people. Mr. Erdogan fears that defending Kobani would strengthen the Syrian Kurds, who have won de facto control of many border areas as they seek autonomy much like their Kurdish brethren in Iraq. But if Kobani falls, Kurdish fury will undoubtedly grow.
The Americans have been trying hard to resolve differences with Mr. Erdogan in recent days, but these large gaps are deeply threatening to the 50-plus-nation coalition that the United States has assembled. One has to wonder why such a profound dispute was not worked out before Mr. Obama took action in Syria.
Mr. Erdogan’s Dangerous Game
Turkey’s Refusal to Fight ISIS Hurts the Kurds
By THE EDITORIAL BOARDOCT. 8, 2014
Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, once aspired to lead the Muslim world. At this time of regional crisis, he has been anything but a leader. Turkish troops and tanks have been standing passively behind a chicken-wire border fence while a mile away in Syria, Islamic extremists are besieging the town of Kobani and its Kurdish population.
This is an indictment of Mr. Erdogan and his cynical political calculations. By keeping his forces on the sidelines and refusing to help in other ways — like allowing Kurdish fighters to pass through Turkey — he seeks not only to weaken the Kurds, but also, in a test of will with President Obama, to force the United States to help him oust President Bashar al-Assad of Syria, whom he detests.
It is also evidence of the confusion and internal tensions that affect Mr. Obama’s work-in-progress strategy to degrade and defeat the Islamic State, the Sunni Muslim extremist group also called ISIS or ISIL. Kurdish fighters in Kobani have been struggling for weeks to repel the Islamic State. To help, the Americans stepped up airstrikes that began to push the ISIS fighters back, although gun battles and explosions continued on Wednesday.
But all sides — the Americans, Mr. Erdogan and the Kurds — agree that ground forces are necessary to capitalize on the air power. No dice, says Mr. Erdogan, unless the United States provides more support to rebels trying to overthrow Mr. Assad and creates a no-fly zone to deter the Syrian Air Force as well as a buffer zone along the Turkish border to shelter thousands of Syrian refugees who have fled the fighting.
No one can deny Mr. Assad’s brutality in the civil war, but Mr. Obama has rightly resisted involvement in that war and has insisted that the focus should be on degrading ISIS, not going after the Syrian leader. The biggest risk in his decision to attack ISIS in Syria from the air is that it could put America on a slippery slope to a war that he has otherwise sought to avoid.
Mr. Erdogan’s behavior is hardly worthy of a NATO ally. He was so eager to oust Mr. Assad that he enabled ISIS and other militants by allowing fighters, weapons and revenues to flow through Turkey. If Mr. Erdogan refuses to defend Kobani and seriously join the fight against the Islamic State, he will further enable a savage terrorist group and ensure a poisonous long-term instability on his border.
He has also complicated his standing at home. His hesitation in helping the Syrian Kurds has enraged Turkey’s Kurdish minority, which staged protests against the Turkish government on Wednesday that reportedly led to the deaths of 21 people. Mr. Erdogan fears that defending Kobani would strengthen the Syrian Kurds, who have won de facto control of many border areas as they seek autonomy much like their Kurdish brethren in Iraq. But if Kobani falls, Kurdish fury will undoubtedly grow.
The Americans have been trying hard to resolve differences with Mr. Erdogan in recent days, but these large gaps are deeply threatening to the 50-plus-nation coalition that the United States has assembled. One has to wonder why such a profound dispute was not worked out before Mr. Obama took action in Syria.
Turkey's tough choice: Take on ISIS or the PKK?
Turkey's tough choice: Take on ISIS or the PKK?
By Gönül Tol, Special to CNN
October 9, 2014 -- Updated 1234 GMT (2034 HKT)
Editor's note: Gönül Tol is the founding director of The Middle East Institute's Center for Turkish Studies and an adjunct professor at George Washington University's Institute for Middle East Studies. The views expressed in this commentary are entirely those of the author.
(CNN) -- Turkey is in a tough spot. It has ISIS militants threatening the Syrian border town of Kobani, inching ever closer to confronting Turkish security forces. In addition thousands of Syrian Kurds, fleeing ISIS attacks, have massed along its border, adding further to Ankara's troubles.
Amid mounting pressure to become more active in the U.S.-led international coalition against ISIS, the Turkish parliament last week overwhelmingly authorized its military to make incursions into Syria and Iraq; also to allow foreign troops to operate out of Turkish bases. The move has been greeted in Western capitals as a welcome sign that Turkey is finally fully on board with the anti-ISIS coalition.
Yet the Turkish parliament's actions herald neither a complete about-face in policy toward Syria nor immediate military action against ISIS. Indeed, Turkey's reasons for joining the war may be more to do with suppressing Kurdish separatists and removing the al-Assad regime than with destroying the jihadist group.
Toppling the leadership in Damascus and keeping in check the Syrian Kurds who are closely linked to the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, have long been Ankara's priorities in Syria.
Turkey authorizes strikes on ISIS ISIS forces enter Kobani, sources say Biden regrets saying allies helped ISIS Cam catches ISIS shelling Syrian city
The wording of last week's parliamentary resolution -- which states that "the terrorist elements of the outlawed PKK still exist in northern Iraq" -- suggests that Kurdish separatists still remain the Turkish government's top concern.
The vote does not signal intervention against ISIS any time soon: despite thousands of Syrian Kurdish refugees and ISIS's fast advance towards Turkey's southern border, Ankara seems unwilling to act. Turkey's defense minister Ismet Yilmaz said: "Don't expect an imminent step after the approval of the authorization request."
Rather, the Turkish government is likely to give its full cooperation to the campaign against ISIS so that it can secure agreement of a U.S.-backed no-fly zone in Syria: this, Ankara believes, would address both concerns.
Turkey thinks that Assad regime's ability to attack mainstream opposition forces from the air has strengthened ISIS, causing the Free Syrian Army to flee and allowing the Islamic militants to capture the vacant territory. Enforcing a no-fly zone over Syria would ground al-Assad's air force and boost rebels fighting to topple him: it could also establish a Turkish military presence, ridding northern Syria of Kurdish fighters linked to the PKK and smothering the autonomous Kurdish region. Turkey has become increasingly uneasy about the emergence of yet another Kurdish entity on its frontier after the PKK-affiliated Syrian Kurdish groups established autonomy in northern Syria.
The military and diplomatic boost that the PKK has received through its effective fight against ISIS has also worsened the situation for Ankara. In response to the growing ISIS threat, the PKK, the Peshmerga, and the People's Protection Unit (the PKK-linked Kurdish militia group fighting in Syria), have established a united Kurdish front, with the PKK militants coming to the aid of Peshmerga fighters and halting the jihadi group's advance into the autonomous region of northern Iraq. The People's Protection Unit was the main force battling ISIS, and it helped thousands of Yazidis escape from the western part of the region as ISIS attacked.
The PKK has effectively become the West's best hope for on-the-ground troops, winning the group positive reviews in Western media. Since the group started its assault against ISIS in northern Iraq, there has been a lot of talk in Western capitals about removing the PKK from the terror list.By Gönül Tol, Special to CNN
October 9, 2014 -- Updated 1234 GMT (2034 HKT)
Editor's note: Gönül Tol is the founding director of The Middle East Institute's Center for Turkish Studies and an adjunct professor at George Washington University's Institute for Middle East Studies. The views expressed in this commentary are entirely those of the author.
(CNN) -- Turkey is in a tough spot. It has ISIS militants threatening the Syrian border town of Kobani, inching ever closer to confronting Turkish security forces. In addition thousands of Syrian Kurds, fleeing ISIS attacks, have massed along its border, adding further to Ankara's troubles.
Amid mounting pressure to become more active in the U.S.-led international coalition against ISIS, the Turkish parliament last week overwhelmingly authorized its military to make incursions into Syria and Iraq; also to allow foreign troops to operate out of Turkish bases. The move has been greeted in Western capitals as a welcome sign that Turkey is finally fully on board with the anti-ISIS coalition.
Yet the Turkish parliament's actions herald neither a complete about-face in policy toward Syria nor immediate military action against ISIS. Indeed, Turkey's reasons for joining the war may be more to do with suppressing Kurdish separatists and removing the al-Assad regime than with destroying the jihadist group.
Toppling the leadership in Damascus and keeping in check the Syrian Kurds who are closely linked to the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, have long been Ankara's priorities in Syria.
Turkey authorizes strikes on ISIS ISIS forces enter Kobani, sources say Biden regrets saying allies helped ISIS Cam catches ISIS shelling Syrian city
The wording of last week's parliamentary resolution -- which states that "the terrorist elements of the outlawed PKK still exist in northern Iraq" -- suggests that Kurdish separatists still remain the Turkish government's top concern.
The vote does not signal intervention against ISIS any time soon: despite thousands of Syrian Kurdish refugees and ISIS's fast advance towards Turkey's southern border, Ankara seems unwilling to act. Turkey's defense minister Ismet Yilmaz said: "Don't expect an imminent step after the approval of the authorization request."
Rather, the Turkish government is likely to give its full cooperation to the campaign against ISIS so that it can secure agreement of a U.S.-backed no-fly zone in Syria: this, Ankara believes, would address both concerns.
Turkey thinks that Assad regime's ability to attack mainstream opposition forces from the air has strengthened ISIS, causing the Free Syrian Army to flee and allowing the Islamic militants to capture the vacant territory. Enforcing a no-fly zone over Syria would ground al-Assad's air force and boost rebels fighting to topple him: it could also establish a Turkish military presence, ridding northern Syria of Kurdish fighters linked to the PKK and smothering the autonomous Kurdish region. Turkey has become increasingly uneasy about the emergence of yet another Kurdish entity on its frontier after the PKK-affiliated Syrian Kurdish groups established autonomy in northern Syria.
The military and diplomatic boost that the PKK has received through its effective fight against ISIS has also worsened the situation for Ankara. In response to the growing ISIS threat, the PKK, the Peshmerga, and the People's Protection Unit (the PKK-linked Kurdish militia group fighting in Syria), have established a united Kurdish front, with the PKK militants coming to the aid of Peshmerga fighters and halting the jihadi group's advance into the autonomous region of northern Iraq. The People's Protection Unit was the main force battling ISIS, and it helped thousands of Yazidis escape from the western part of the region as ISIS attacked.
The fight against ISIS has also empowered the PKK militarily: Turkey is concerned that that weapons sent to the Peshmerga might ultimately end up in the hands of the PKK at a time when Ankara is moving forward with a deal that would disarm its group. The Turkish government puts the blame for this on the West but Ankara's overtures towards its own Kurdish minority have been mostly strained by its own short-sighted Syria policy.
The ongoing conflict around Kobani has underscored the many challenges the Syrian war poses for the peace process Ankara launched in 2012 in an effort to end the 30-year old Kurdish insurgency. The intensified shelling in Kobani has angered Kurds on the Turkish side of the border, who have blamed the Turkish government for allowing ISIS to fester and not doing enough to stop its assault against Kurds.
Turkey's reluctance to get involved for fear of empowering Kurdish militants in Turkey is now contributing to the growing discord between Kurds and the government. Last week, after reports that Turkey closed the border gates to impede the flight of Kurds from Kobani, Abdullah Ocalan, the PKK's imprisoned leader, warned that if ISIS carried out a "massacre" in Kobani then the peace process with the PKK could end.
If engaged by Ankara, the PKK-linked groups in Syria could be integrated into the moderate Syrian opposition and become an effective fighting force against the al-Assad regime. But the Turkish government's increasingly harsh rhetoric against the group signals that such a shift in Ankara's thinking is not in the works. Last week, Erdogan said "While the ISIS terror organization is causing turmoil in the Middle East, there has been ongoing PKK terror in my country for the last 32 years, and yet the world was never troubled by it. Why? Because this terror organization did not carry the name 'Islam.'"
If Turkey keeps seeing the PKK a bigger threat than ISIS activities in Syria, then the legislation passed last week is unlikely to lead to a deeper involvement of Turkey in the fight against the jihadist group.
No let up in firing on Indo-Pak border
No let up in firing on Indo-Pak border
Very serious situation at hand: Div Com Jammu
ABHINAV VERMA
Jammu, Oct 8: Amid mounting tension, Indian and Pakistani soldiers exchanged heavy fire along the Line of Control and Indo-Pak border here Wednesday, leading to death of two women in Samba sector. As per government figures, the border firing has, in past few days, claimed eight lives while causing injuries to at least 75 persons.
Divisional Commissioner Jammu, Shanat Manu, said eight deaths have been reported so far across the Jammu region. He said in the Pakistani firing, one person was killed in Poonch, five in Jammu and two in Samba district till Wednesday evening.
“We have a very serious situation at hand right now, he said.
Police sources said the firing began after the Pakistan's military allegedly attacked about 60 Indian army posts stationed along the border.
“Pakistani rangers targeted the entire Jammu border during the night and the firing is still on,” they said.
At least there Army soldiers, including a JCO, were seriously injured when their location was hit by a mortar shell fired from across the LoC in GaliMaidaan in Sabjian sector of Poonch district yesterday evening, officials said.
The injured soldiers have been identified as NaibSubedarSubash Singh, SepoySurjit Singh and SepoyBasant Kumar of 40 Rashtriya Rifles.
“Pakistan intermittently carried out firing between 1300 hrs and 1900 hrs in Poonch and Mendhar Sector along the LoC,’’ an official spokesman said. “Ceasefire violation was effectively responded by own troops. Earlier in Banwat and Hamirpur areas, Pakistan also violated the truce at 1620 hrs with small arms and mortars.”
2 WOMEN KILLED IN SAMBA
Last night, Pakistani Rangers simultaneously targeted several Border Outer Post (BoPs) in Samba and Kathua districts, resulting death of two women and injuries to over two dozen residents and security personnel, officials said.
Residents of Chelyari village, situated close to Indo-Pak border, left the village after the firing intensified. Stray bullets reportedly hit some residents of the village. “A woman died on spot while six persons were shifted to Government Medical College and Hospital (GMC&H) Jammu,” a police official said, adding “another woman succumbed to her injuries in the hospital.”
The deceased have been identified as Shankuntla Devi and her daughter-in-law, Polli Devi.
The injured admitted at GMC included Soudaggar Mal, Booti Ram. Kuldeepkumar, Meenu Devi and Koushal Kumar—all residents of Chelyari village.
While official channels between the two neighbouring countries remained blocked, the soldiers on both sides exchanged heavy firing at several places during the intervening night of Tuesday and Wednesday, officials said.
Meanwhile seven people were injured near Jeora Farm in Ranbir Singh Pura Sector when they were on way towards their house and hit by a mortar shell. They were shifted to GMC Jammu.
Five people were killed and 30 injured in border firing in Arnia Sub-Sector on October 6, officials said.
==============
Pak looking for a leader to deal with LoC tension: Imran Khan
Lastupdate at : Thu, 9 Oct 2014 16:51:38 IST
SmallerDefaultLarger
Islamabad, Oct 9: Pakistan's opposition leader Imran Khan has said that the country needs a better leader than Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to respond to the situation along the Line of Control.
"The nation is looking for a leader in the present circumstances. But where are you, Mr Nawaz Sharif? Why are you silent?" asked Khan, chief of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf.
The cricketer-turned-politician alleged that Sharif was silent on the LoC situation to save his business interests. PTI
Very serious situation at hand: Div Com Jammu
ABHINAV VERMA
Jammu, Oct 8: Amid mounting tension, Indian and Pakistani soldiers exchanged heavy fire along the Line of Control and Indo-Pak border here Wednesday, leading to death of two women in Samba sector. As per government figures, the border firing has, in past few days, claimed eight lives while causing injuries to at least 75 persons.
Divisional Commissioner Jammu, Shanat Manu, said eight deaths have been reported so far across the Jammu region. He said in the Pakistani firing, one person was killed in Poonch, five in Jammu and two in Samba district till Wednesday evening.
“We have a very serious situation at hand right now, he said.
Police sources said the firing began after the Pakistan's military allegedly attacked about 60 Indian army posts stationed along the border.
“Pakistani rangers targeted the entire Jammu border during the night and the firing is still on,” they said.
At least there Army soldiers, including a JCO, were seriously injured when their location was hit by a mortar shell fired from across the LoC in GaliMaidaan in Sabjian sector of Poonch district yesterday evening, officials said.
The injured soldiers have been identified as NaibSubedarSubash Singh, SepoySurjit Singh and SepoyBasant Kumar of 40 Rashtriya Rifles.
“Pakistan intermittently carried out firing between 1300 hrs and 1900 hrs in Poonch and Mendhar Sector along the LoC,’’ an official spokesman said. “Ceasefire violation was effectively responded by own troops. Earlier in Banwat and Hamirpur areas, Pakistan also violated the truce at 1620 hrs with small arms and mortars.”
2 WOMEN KILLED IN SAMBA
Last night, Pakistani Rangers simultaneously targeted several Border Outer Post (BoPs) in Samba and Kathua districts, resulting death of two women and injuries to over two dozen residents and security personnel, officials said.
Residents of Chelyari village, situated close to Indo-Pak border, left the village after the firing intensified. Stray bullets reportedly hit some residents of the village. “A woman died on spot while six persons were shifted to Government Medical College and Hospital (GMC&H) Jammu,” a police official said, adding “another woman succumbed to her injuries in the hospital.”
The deceased have been identified as Shankuntla Devi and her daughter-in-law, Polli Devi.
The injured admitted at GMC included Soudaggar Mal, Booti Ram. Kuldeepkumar, Meenu Devi and Koushal Kumar—all residents of Chelyari village.
While official channels between the two neighbouring countries remained blocked, the soldiers on both sides exchanged heavy firing at several places during the intervening night of Tuesday and Wednesday, officials said.
Meanwhile seven people were injured near Jeora Farm in Ranbir Singh Pura Sector when they were on way towards their house and hit by a mortar shell. They were shifted to GMC Jammu.
Five people were killed and 30 injured in border firing in Arnia Sub-Sector on October 6, officials said.
==============
Pak looking for a leader to deal with LoC tension: Imran Khan
Lastupdate at : Thu, 9 Oct 2014 16:51:38 IST
SmallerDefaultLarger
Islamabad, Oct 9: Pakistan's opposition leader Imran Khan has said that the country needs a better leader than Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to respond to the situation along the Line of Control.
"The nation is looking for a leader in the present circumstances. But where are you, Mr Nawaz Sharif? Why are you silent?" asked Khan, chief of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf.
The cricketer-turned-politician alleged that Sharif was silent on the LoC situation to save his business interests. PTI
Islamic State seizes large areas of Syrian town
Islamic State seizes large areas of Syrian town despite air strikes
BY DAREN BUTLER AND OLIVER HOLMES
MURSITPINAR Turkey/BEIRUT Thu Oct 9, 2014 7:50am EDT
(Reuters) - Islamic State fighters seized more than a third of the Syrian border town of Kobani, a monitoring group said on Thursday, as U.S.-led air strikes failed to halt their advance and Turkish forces nearby looked on without intervening.
With Washington ruling out a ground operation in Syria, Turkey described as unrealistic any expectation that it would conduct a cross-border operation unilaterally to relieve the mainly Kurdish town.
The commander of Kobani's heavily outgunned Kurdish defenders said Islamic State controlled slightly less than a third of the town that lies within sight of Turkish territory.
However, he acknowledged that the militants had made major gains in a three-week battle that has also led to the worst streets clashes in years between police and Kurdish protesters across the frontier in southeast Turkey.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Islamic State, which is still widely known by its former acronym of ISIS, had pushed forward on Thursday.
"ISIS control more than a third of Kobani. All eastern areas, a small part of the northeast and an area in the southeast," said Rami Abdulrahman, head of the Observatory which monitors the Syrian civil war.
Esmat al-Sheikh, leader of the militia forces in Kobani, said Islamic State had seized about a quarter of the town in the east. "The clashes are ongoing - street battles," he told Reuters by telephone from the town.
Explosions rocked the town throughout Thursday, with black smoke visible from the Turkish border a few kilometres (miles) away. Islamic State hoisted its black flag in Kobani overnight and a stray projectile landed 3 km (2 miles) inside Turkey. The U.S.-led coalition carried out several airstrikes on Thursday and sporadic gunfire from the besieged town was audible.
The United Nations says only a few hundred inhabitants remain in Kobani but the town's defenders say the battle will end in a massacre if Islamic State prevails, giving it a strategic garrison on the Turkish border.
They complain that the United States is giving only token support through the air strikes, while Turkish tanks sent to the frontier are looking on but doing nothing to defend the town.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu played down the likelihood of those forces going to the aid of Kobani.
"It is not realistic to expect Turkey to conduct a ground operation on its own," he told a joint news conference with visiting NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg. However, he added: "We are holding talks.... Once there is a common decision, Turkey will not hold back from playing its part."
Ankara resents any suggestion from Washington that it is not pulling its weight, but wants broader joint action that also targets the forces of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. "We strongly reject allegations of Turkish responsibility for the ISIS advance," said a senior Ankara government source.
"Our allies, especially the U.S. administration, dragged their feet for a very long time before deciding to take action against the catastrophic events happening in Syria," he added.
Turkey has long advocated action against Assad during the civil war, which grew out of a popular uprising in 2011. However, the United States called off air strikes on Damascus government forces at the last minute last year when Assad agreed to give up his chemical weapons.
President Tayyip Erdogan says he wants the U.S.-led alliance to enforce a "no-fly zone" to prevent Assad's air force flying over Syrian territory near the Turkish border and create a safe area for an estimated 1.5 million Syrian refugees in Turkey to return.
But Stoltenberg said that establishing a no-fly zone or a safe zone inside Syria has not been discussed by NATO.
TURKISH CLASHES
At least 21 people died in the mainly Kurdish southeast of Turkey on Wednesday during clashes between security forces and Kurds demanding that the government do more to help Kobani. There were also clashes in Istanbul and Ankara.
In Washington, the Pentagon cautioned on Wednesday that there are limits to what the air strikes can do in Syria before Western-backed, moderate Syrian opposition forces are strong enough to repel Islamic State.
Islamic State has also seized large areas of territory in neighbouring Iraq, where the United States has focused its air attacks on the militants.
President Barack Obama has ruled out sending U.S. ground forces on a combat mission, and Secretary of State John Kerry offered little hope to Kobani's defenders on Wednesday. "As horrific as it is to watch in real time what is happening in Kobani ... you have to step back and understand the strategic objective," he said.
In Turkey, the fallout from the war in Syria and Iraq has threatened to unravel the NATO member's delicate peace process with its Kurdish community. Ankara has long been suspicious of any Kurdish assertiveness which puts itself in a tough position as it tries to end its own 30-year war with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).
Following Wednesday's violence in Turkey, streets have been calmer since curfews were imposed in five southeastern provinces, restrictions unseen since the 1990s when PKK forces were fighting the Turkish military in the southeast.
Erdogan said that protesters had exploited the events in Kobani as an excuse to sabotage the Kurdish peace process. "Carrying out violent acts in Turkey by hiding behind the terror attacks on Kobani shows that the real intention and target is entirely different," he said in a statement.
Kurdish leaders in Syria have asked Ankara to help establish a corridor which will allow aid and possibly arms and fighters to cross the border and reach Kobani, but Ankara has so far been reluctant to respond positively.
Saleh Muslim, co-chairman of the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) in Syria, met Turkish officials last week, Kurdish sources said, but the meeting was not fruitful.
The PYD annoyed Turkey last year by setting up an interim administration in northeast Syria after Syrian President Bashar al-Assad lost control of the region. Ankara wants Kurdish leaders to abandon their self-declared autonomy.
Turkey has also been unhappy with the Kurds' reluctance to join the wider opposition to Assad.
On the Turkish side of the frontier near Kobani, 21-year-old student Ferdi from the eastern Turkish province of Tunceli said if Kobani fell, the conflict would spread to Turkey.
"In fact it already has spread here," he said, standing with a group of several dozen people in fields watching the smoke rising from west Kobani.
Turkish police fired tear gas against protesters in the town of Suruç near the border overnight. A petrol bomb set fire to a house and the shutters on most shops in the town were kept shut in a traditional form of protest against state authorities.
(Additional reporting by Tom Perry in Beirut, Humeyra Pamuk in Istanbul and Orhan Coskun, Tulay Karadeniz and Jonny Hogg in Ankara; Editing by David Stamp)
BY DAREN BUTLER AND OLIVER HOLMES
MURSITPINAR Turkey/BEIRUT Thu Oct 9, 2014 7:50am EDT
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REUTERS- A black flag belonging to the Islamic State is seen in the Syrian town of Kobani, as pictured from the Turkish-Syrian border near the southeastern town of Suruc October 9, 2014.
CREDIT: REUTERS/UMIT BEKTAS
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With Washington ruling out a ground operation in Syria, Turkey described as unrealistic any expectation that it would conduct a cross-border operation unilaterally to relieve the mainly Kurdish town.
The commander of Kobani's heavily outgunned Kurdish defenders said Islamic State controlled slightly less than a third of the town that lies within sight of Turkish territory.
However, he acknowledged that the militants had made major gains in a three-week battle that has also led to the worst streets clashes in years between police and Kurdish protesters across the frontier in southeast Turkey.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Islamic State, which is still widely known by its former acronym of ISIS, had pushed forward on Thursday.
"ISIS control more than a third of Kobani. All eastern areas, a small part of the northeast and an area in the southeast," said Rami Abdulrahman, head of the Observatory which monitors the Syrian civil war.
Esmat al-Sheikh, leader of the militia forces in Kobani, said Islamic State had seized about a quarter of the town in the east. "The clashes are ongoing - street battles," he told Reuters by telephone from the town.
Explosions rocked the town throughout Thursday, with black smoke visible from the Turkish border a few kilometres (miles) away. Islamic State hoisted its black flag in Kobani overnight and a stray projectile landed 3 km (2 miles) inside Turkey. The U.S.-led coalition carried out several airstrikes on Thursday and sporadic gunfire from the besieged town was audible.
The United Nations says only a few hundred inhabitants remain in Kobani but the town's defenders say the battle will end in a massacre if Islamic State prevails, giving it a strategic garrison on the Turkish border.
They complain that the United States is giving only token support through the air strikes, while Turkish tanks sent to the frontier are looking on but doing nothing to defend the town.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu played down the likelihood of those forces going to the aid of Kobani.
"It is not realistic to expect Turkey to conduct a ground operation on its own," he told a joint news conference with visiting NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg. However, he added: "We are holding talks.... Once there is a common decision, Turkey will not hold back from playing its part."
Ankara resents any suggestion from Washington that it is not pulling its weight, but wants broader joint action that also targets the forces of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. "We strongly reject allegations of Turkish responsibility for the ISIS advance," said a senior Ankara government source.
"Our allies, especially the U.S. administration, dragged their feet for a very long time before deciding to take action against the catastrophic events happening in Syria," he added.
Turkey has long advocated action against Assad during the civil war, which grew out of a popular uprising in 2011. However, the United States called off air strikes on Damascus government forces at the last minute last year when Assad agreed to give up his chemical weapons.
President Tayyip Erdogan says he wants the U.S.-led alliance to enforce a "no-fly zone" to prevent Assad's air force flying over Syrian territory near the Turkish border and create a safe area for an estimated 1.5 million Syrian refugees in Turkey to return.
But Stoltenberg said that establishing a no-fly zone or a safe zone inside Syria has not been discussed by NATO.
TURKISH CLASHES
At least 21 people died in the mainly Kurdish southeast of Turkey on Wednesday during clashes between security forces and Kurds demanding that the government do more to help Kobani. There were also clashes in Istanbul and Ankara.
In Washington, the Pentagon cautioned on Wednesday that there are limits to what the air strikes can do in Syria before Western-backed, moderate Syrian opposition forces are strong enough to repel Islamic State.
Islamic State has also seized large areas of territory in neighbouring Iraq, where the United States has focused its air attacks on the militants.
President Barack Obama has ruled out sending U.S. ground forces on a combat mission, and Secretary of State John Kerry offered little hope to Kobani's defenders on Wednesday. "As horrific as it is to watch in real time what is happening in Kobani ... you have to step back and understand the strategic objective," he said.
In Turkey, the fallout from the war in Syria and Iraq has threatened to unravel the NATO member's delicate peace process with its Kurdish community. Ankara has long been suspicious of any Kurdish assertiveness which puts itself in a tough position as it tries to end its own 30-year war with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).
Following Wednesday's violence in Turkey, streets have been calmer since curfews were imposed in five southeastern provinces, restrictions unseen since the 1990s when PKK forces were fighting the Turkish military in the southeast.
Erdogan said that protesters had exploited the events in Kobani as an excuse to sabotage the Kurdish peace process. "Carrying out violent acts in Turkey by hiding behind the terror attacks on Kobani shows that the real intention and target is entirely different," he said in a statement.
Kurdish leaders in Syria have asked Ankara to help establish a corridor which will allow aid and possibly arms and fighters to cross the border and reach Kobani, but Ankara has so far been reluctant to respond positively.
Saleh Muslim, co-chairman of the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) in Syria, met Turkish officials last week, Kurdish sources said, but the meeting was not fruitful.
The PYD annoyed Turkey last year by setting up an interim administration in northeast Syria after Syrian President Bashar al-Assad lost control of the region. Ankara wants Kurdish leaders to abandon their self-declared autonomy.
Turkey has also been unhappy with the Kurds' reluctance to join the wider opposition to Assad.
On the Turkish side of the frontier near Kobani, 21-year-old student Ferdi from the eastern Turkish province of Tunceli said if Kobani fell, the conflict would spread to Turkey.
"In fact it already has spread here," he said, standing with a group of several dozen people in fields watching the smoke rising from west Kobani.
Turkish police fired tear gas against protesters in the town of Suruç near the border overnight. A petrol bomb set fire to a house and the shutters on most shops in the town were kept shut in a traditional form of protest against state authorities.
(Additional reporting by Tom Perry in Beirut, Humeyra Pamuk in Istanbul and Orhan Coskun, Tulay Karadeniz and Jonny Hogg in Ankara; Editing by David Stamp)
As Islamic State Nears Conquest of Syrian Town, U.S. Presses Turks
MIDDLE EAST
As Islamic State Nears Conquest of Syrian Town, U.S. Presses Turks
By MARK LANDLER and ERIC SCHMITT NYT OCT. 8, 2014
WASHINGTON — As fighters from the Islamic State were on the brink of a highly visible conquest of a Syrian town near the Turkish border, Obama administration officials on Wednesday said there were limits to what the United States was able or willing to do to defend it.
Officials from the White House, the State Department and the Pentagon warned that airstrikes alone would not be sufficient to protect the town, Kobani, from the black-clad fighters. Their comments came a month after President Obama expanded the military campaign against the Sunni militant group into Syria. Although the Kurdish town — with television cameras trained on it from across the border in Turkey — has become a vivid symbol of the Islamic State’s lethal advance, and the Kurds’ fierce resistance, administration officials sought to play down its strategic importance.
“As horrific as it is to watch in real time what’s happening in Kobani,” Secretary of State John Kerry said at a news conference, “it’s also important to remember that you have to step back and understand the strategic objective and where we have begun over the course of the last weeks.”
The military’s Central Command said that the United States had conducted eight more airstrikes on Wednesday — for a total of 19 in the past four days — to try to halt the advance on Kobani. But officials drew a sharp distinction between Syria and Iraq, where it conducts airstrikes in concert with Kurdish pesh merga fighters and the Iraqi military.
“That sort of ground operation doesn’t currently exist in Syria right now, and that will limit the effectiveness of the United States military to have the same kind of impact on the situation in Kobani,” the White House spokesman, Josh Earnest, told reporters.
On Wednesday, Mr. Obama was briefed on the military campaign by his commanders at the Pentagon and then met there with his national security team. “It remains a difficult mission,” he said. “As I’ve indicated from the start, this is not something that is going to be solved overnight.” The administration’s downbeat tone seemed aimed at managing expectations about the campaign and also at pressuring Turkey, which has signed on to the coalition but has so far been reluctant to commit military resources in the conflict.
Officials said they wanted the Turks to act by deploying ground troops in Syria, firing artillery at the militants, helping to train and arm Syrian rebels, sharing intelligence or opening its border to let Turkish Kurdish fighters join the fight and Syrian Kurds to flee the town. The White House, however, has not specifically asked Turkey to send troops to defend Kobani, in part because the Syrian Kurds there do not want Turkish reinforcements. The role of Turkish troops in Syria is complicated because President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has made no secret that he wants to oust President Bashar al-Assad as much as he wants to repel the Islamic State.
The delicacy of the negotiations between the United States and Turkey is typified by the issue of a buffer zone in the northern part of Syria, which the Turkish government has long demanded and which the Pentagon has resisted because of its cost and complexity.
On Wednesday, Mr. Kerry said the idea of a buffer zone was “worth looking at very, very closely,” and would be a topic of discussion between Turkish officials and Mr. Obama’s special envoy for Syria, Gen. John R. Allen, in meetings in Ankara on Thursday. Mr. Earnest, however, said, “It’s not something that’s under consideration right now.”
Administration officials said the United States was walking a fine line with Turkey, which has conditioned military participation on the imposition of a buffer zone. General Allen is expected to argue that bolstering the Syrian rebels would not only create a fighting force against the Islamic State, but also be a counterweight to the Assad government.
Pentagon officials said that while airstrikes had succeeded in changing the tactics of the militants — dispersing them, forcing them to conceal their weapons and hide among the population and limiting their electronic communications — airstrikes would not be enough to stop them from seizing Kobani and other towns.
“Airstrikes alone are not going to fix this, not going to save the town of Kobani,” said Rear Adm. John Kirby, the Pentagon press secretary. “We know that. We know that ISIL is going to continue to grab ground and there are going to be villages and towns and cities that they take.” Admiral Kirby was using an alternative name for the group.
Admiral Kirby also conceded that unlike in Iraq, where the United States has sent scores of military advisers to assist Iraqi and Kurdish troops, Syria offers no ready ground ally.
The Pentagon plans to train about 5,000 opposition fighters a year, but Admiral Kirby said it would take three to five months just to develop the “procedures and protocols” for the program before it begins at a base in Saudi Arabia. It would be several additional months after that before the first group of trained fighters could be fielded.
A senior administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity to avoid angering an important NATO ally, said Washington was pressing Turkey to send troops across the border and carry out airstrikes of their own to reverse the Islamic State’s gains.“We can’t have our boots on the grounds,” said the official. “That’s the responsibility of the countries in the region.”
Michael R. Gordon contributed reporting.
As Islamic State Nears Conquest of Syrian Town, U.S. Presses Turks
By MARK LANDLER and ERIC SCHMITT NYT OCT. 8, 2014
 |
| President Obama, at the Pentagon on Wednesday, discussed the drive against the Islamic State. Credit Stephen Crowley/The New York Times |
Officials from the White House, the State Department and the Pentagon warned that airstrikes alone would not be sufficient to protect the town, Kobani, from the black-clad fighters. Their comments came a month after President Obama expanded the military campaign against the Sunni militant group into Syria. Although the Kurdish town — with television cameras trained on it from across the border in Turkey — has become a vivid symbol of the Islamic State’s lethal advance, and the Kurds’ fierce resistance, administration officials sought to play down its strategic importance.
“As horrific as it is to watch in real time what’s happening in Kobani,” Secretary of State John Kerry said at a news conference, “it’s also important to remember that you have to step back and understand the strategic objective and where we have begun over the course of the last weeks.”
The military’s Central Command said that the United States had conducted eight more airstrikes on Wednesday — for a total of 19 in the past four days — to try to halt the advance on Kobani. But officials drew a sharp distinction between Syria and Iraq, where it conducts airstrikes in concert with Kurdish pesh merga fighters and the Iraqi military.
“That sort of ground operation doesn’t currently exist in Syria right now, and that will limit the effectiveness of the United States military to have the same kind of impact on the situation in Kobani,” the White House spokesman, Josh Earnest, told reporters.
On Wednesday, Mr. Obama was briefed on the military campaign by his commanders at the Pentagon and then met there with his national security team. “It remains a difficult mission,” he said. “As I’ve indicated from the start, this is not something that is going to be solved overnight.” The administration’s downbeat tone seemed aimed at managing expectations about the campaign and also at pressuring Turkey, which has signed on to the coalition but has so far been reluctant to commit military resources in the conflict.
Officials said they wanted the Turks to act by deploying ground troops in Syria, firing artillery at the militants, helping to train and arm Syrian rebels, sharing intelligence or opening its border to let Turkish Kurdish fighters join the fight and Syrian Kurds to flee the town. The White House, however, has not specifically asked Turkey to send troops to defend Kobani, in part because the Syrian Kurds there do not want Turkish reinforcements. The role of Turkish troops in Syria is complicated because President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has made no secret that he wants to oust President Bashar al-Assad as much as he wants to repel the Islamic State.
The delicacy of the negotiations between the United States and Turkey is typified by the issue of a buffer zone in the northern part of Syria, which the Turkish government has long demanded and which the Pentagon has resisted because of its cost and complexity.
On Wednesday, Mr. Kerry said the idea of a buffer zone was “worth looking at very, very closely,” and would be a topic of discussion between Turkish officials and Mr. Obama’s special envoy for Syria, Gen. John R. Allen, in meetings in Ankara on Thursday. Mr. Earnest, however, said, “It’s not something that’s under consideration right now.”
Administration officials said the United States was walking a fine line with Turkey, which has conditioned military participation on the imposition of a buffer zone. General Allen is expected to argue that bolstering the Syrian rebels would not only create a fighting force against the Islamic State, but also be a counterweight to the Assad government.
Pentagon officials said that while airstrikes had succeeded in changing the tactics of the militants — dispersing them, forcing them to conceal their weapons and hide among the population and limiting their electronic communications — airstrikes would not be enough to stop them from seizing Kobani and other towns.
“Airstrikes alone are not going to fix this, not going to save the town of Kobani,” said Rear Adm. John Kirby, the Pentagon press secretary. “We know that. We know that ISIL is going to continue to grab ground and there are going to be villages and towns and cities that they take.” Admiral Kirby was using an alternative name for the group.
Admiral Kirby also conceded that unlike in Iraq, where the United States has sent scores of military advisers to assist Iraqi and Kurdish troops, Syria offers no ready ground ally.
The Pentagon plans to train about 5,000 opposition fighters a year, but Admiral Kirby said it would take three to five months just to develop the “procedures and protocols” for the program before it begins at a base in Saudi Arabia. It would be several additional months after that before the first group of trained fighters could be fielded.
A senior administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity to avoid angering an important NATO ally, said Washington was pressing Turkey to send troops across the border and carry out airstrikes of their own to reverse the Islamic State’s gains.“We can’t have our boots on the grounds,” said the official. “That’s the responsibility of the countries in the region.”
Michael R. Gordon contributed reporting.
US defence department acknowledged that Kobane could still fall to ISIL
MIDDLE EAST
US says air power 'not enough' to save Kobane
US-led coalition continues air strikes against ISIL as Pentagon official admits besieged Syrian city "could be taken".
Last updated: 09 Oct 2014 07:40 AJ
"Kobani could be taken. We recognise that," John Kirby, the press secretary for the US Defence Department told reporters on Wednesday.
"We're doing everything we can from the air to try to halt the momentum of ISIL against that town. Air power is not going to be alone enough to save that city."
Kirby's comments came as the coalition intensified its bombing of ISIL targets in Kobane, also known as Ayn al-Arab, while the Turkish military deployed tanks on its side of the frontier on Thursday.
In a statement on Wednesday, US Central Command (USCC) said it appeared that Syrian-Kurdish fighters continued to control most of the town and were holding out against ISIL.
If Kobani fell to ISIL, the armed group would be in control of more than half of Syria's 820 km border with Turkey, but US Secretary of State John Kerry said the loss of the town would not be a strategic defeat.
Philip Hammond, the UK's foreign secretary, said that his country was a full partner of the coalition and was open to the possibility of extending its commitment to military action within Syria, a move which he said would require parliamentary approval.
"We absolutely have not ruled out playing a role in Syria. We will require further parliamentary approval if we decide that that is the right thing for us to do," Hammond said.
Buffer zone confusion
Meanwhile, the US has been sending mixed signals over Turkey's proposal to create a buffer zone along the Syria-Turkey border, with Kerry initially saying that Washington was willing to consider the idea, but the White House later denied doing so.
US and Jordanian aircraft conducted eight additional strikes on ISIL around Kobane, for a total of 14 coalition strikes for the day and 19 bombing raids near the town since Tuesday, USCC, which is overseeing the airstrikes and US forces in the Middle East, said on Wednesday.
The latest strikes near Kobane destroyed five armed vehicles, an ISIL supply depot, a command centre, a logistics compound, and eight occupied barracks, the USCC said.
Another air raid southwest of the Syrian city of Raqqa destroyed four armed vehicles and damaged two more, it said.
US fighter jets and other aircraft also kept up bombing runs in Iraq, with one attack northwest of Ramadi, one in Mosul and another raid south of Kirkuk, it said.
About 200,000 people have already fled Kobane and surrounding villages since the fighting began.
US says air power 'not enough' to save Kobane
US-led coalition continues air strikes against ISIL as Pentagon official admits besieged Syrian city "could be taken".
Last updated: 09 Oct 2014 07:40 AJ
Despite the air strikes, the US defence department acknowledged that Kobane could still fall to ISIL [AP]US-led coalition air strikes have managed to push back some fighters belonging to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in the Syrian city of Kobane, but US and UK officials have said that air power alone cannot prevent the city from falling.
"Kobani could be taken. We recognise that," John Kirby, the press secretary for the US Defence Department told reporters on Wednesday.
"We're doing everything we can from the air to try to halt the momentum of ISIL against that town. Air power is not going to be alone enough to save that city."
Kirby's comments came as the coalition intensified its bombing of ISIL targets in Kobane, also known as Ayn al-Arab, while the Turkish military deployed tanks on its side of the frontier on Thursday.
In a statement on Wednesday, US Central Command (USCC) said it appeared that Syrian-Kurdish fighters continued to control most of the town and were holding out against ISIL.
But the Syrian Observatory of Human Rights (SOHR) said on Thursday that ISIL now controls more than a third of the town.
"All eastern areas, a small part of the northeast and an area in the south east [are controlled by ISIL]," the SOHR said.
If Kobani fell to ISIL, the armed group would be in control of more than half of Syria's 820 km border with Turkey, but US Secretary of State John Kerry said the loss of the town would not be a strategic defeat.
Philip Hammond, the UK's foreign secretary, said that his country was a full partner of the coalition and was open to the possibility of extending its commitment to military action within Syria, a move which he said would require parliamentary approval.
"We absolutely have not ruled out playing a role in Syria. We will require further parliamentary approval if we decide that that is the right thing for us to do," Hammond said.
Buffer zone confusion
Meanwhile, the US has been sending mixed signals over Turkey's proposal to create a buffer zone along the Syria-Turkey border, with Kerry initially saying that Washington was willing to consider the idea, but the White House later denied doing so.
US and Jordanian aircraft conducted eight additional strikes on ISIL around Kobane, for a total of 14 coalition strikes for the day and 19 bombing raids near the town since Tuesday, USCC, which is overseeing the airstrikes and US forces in the Middle East, said on Wednesday.
The latest strikes near Kobane destroyed five armed vehicles, an ISIL supply depot, a command centre, a logistics compound, and eight occupied barracks, the USCC said.
Another air raid southwest of the Syrian city of Raqqa destroyed four armed vehicles and damaged two more, it said.
US fighter jets and other aircraft also kept up bombing runs in Iraq, with one attack northwest of Ramadi, one in Mosul and another raid south of Kirkuk, it said.
About 200,000 people have already fled Kobane and surrounding villages since the fighting began.
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