Syrian
Kurds welcomed the arrival in Kobani of Iraqi Kurdish fighters with their heavy
weapons, hoping they might tip the balance in the battle to defend the town
against Islamic State, as U.S.-led air strikes continued to bomb the
ultra-hardline group in Iraq and Syria.
Air strikes have helped to foil several attempts by the al
Qaeda offshoot, notorious for its beheading of hostages, to take over Kobani.
But they have done little to stop its advances, in particular in Sunni areas of
western Iraq, where it has executed hundreds of tribesmen.
Islamic State
fighters have mocked the U.S. air strikes as a campaign against Islam that they
say has angered Muslims and helped the group win followers across the globe.
The arrival of the
150 Iraqi fighters, who have yet to participate in the battle, marks the first
time Turkey has allowed ground troops from outside Syria to reinforce Syrian Kurds, who have
been defending Kobani for more than 40 days.
The fighters - known
as peshmerga, or "those who defy death" - were preparing themselves
for the battle and are expected to take part in action in Kobani later on
Saturday, Kurdish officials said.
"What was
lacking is the weapons and ammunition, so the arrival of more of it plus the
fighters will help tip the balance of the battle," Idris Nassan, deputy
foreign minister of Kobani district, told Reuters by telephone from Kobani.
"The whole
issue is the weapons and ammunition. Of course more fighters will help."
The U.S.
military said it had carried out 10 air strikes against IS militants, five near
Kobani and five in Iraq, since Friday.
The Kobani
strikes "suppressed or destroyed" nine Islamic State fighting
positions and a building. In Iraq, air strikes destroyed an Islamic State
vehicle southwest of Mosul Dam and hit four vehicles and four buildings used by
militants near Al Qaim, the U.S. military said in a statement.
DAUNTLESS AND
EXPANDING
Undeterred by
the air strikes, the Islamic State fighters continued a mass killing campaign
in Iraq to wipe out resistance against the group. They executed 85 more members
of the Albu Nimr tribe, according to a tribal leader and security official.
Tribal chief
Sheikh Naeem al-Ga'oud told Reuters that Islamic State had killed 50 members of
Albu Nimr who were fleeing the group in Anbar province on Friday. In a separate
incident, a security official said 35 bodies had been found in a mass grave.
The group has
executed a total of more than 300 tribe members in the past few days, Ga'oud
and the official said.
Albu Nimr had
held out for weeks under siege by Islamic State, but finally ran low on
ammunition, fuel and food.
The militants
have lost hundreds if not thousands of fighters since the Islamic State was
declared in June, in battles against other Sunni rebels, Islamist groups,
forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and in U.S.-led air strikes.
But fighters
inside the group say that it was receiving hundreds of volunteers every month,
which was helping it carry our more attacks. It was also receiving pledge of
allegiances from Islamist groups in the world including Pakistan, Africa and
some Arab states.
In another sign
of the group's relentless efforts to expand despite the U.S.-led attacks,
dozens of residents of the Libyan town of Derna have pledged allegiance to Abu
Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of the group and self-proclaimed Caliph of all Muslims,
according to a video posted online and residents.
Derna, a port
halfway between the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi and the Egyptian border,
has since 2011 turned into a gathering point for militant Islamists and al
Qaeda sympathizers.
Fifteen members
of Islamic State, led by an Egyptian and a Saudi national, traveled to Derna
from Syria in September to try to rally support and establish an Islamic State
branch in Libya, Egyptian security officials have said.
FSA IN KOBANI
On Saturday,
intense gunfire could be heard in the town of Kobani and Iraqi peshmerga could
be seen on the western side of the town, talking with YPG fighters - the main
Syrian Kurdish armed group defending the town - and standing next to a cannon,
footage from Reuters Television showed.
Also on the
west of the city, fighters from the Free Syrian Army (FSA) who went to defend
the town were seen driving flatbed trucks mounted with heavy machine guns and
flying the three-star green, white and black Syrian flag, Reuters TV footage
showed.
But the move by
FSA - a term used to refer to dozens of armed groups fighting against Assad and
Islamic State - drew criticism from opposition activists, who urged the
fighters to deploy on fronts where the Western-backed rebels were losing to
Assad's forces and to Islamists.
Syria's al
Qaeda-linked Nusra Front seized on Saturday the Jabal al-Zawiya region, the
last remaining stronghold of Western-backed rebels in Syria's northwest
province of Idlib, after days of fighting.
Backed by other
hardline Islamist groups, the Nusra Front are waging a major military campaign
against the Syria Revolutionaries' Front led by Jamal Maarouf, a key figure in
the armed opposition to Assad, after accusing him of being corrupt and working
for the West against them.
Culled from Reuters
No comments:
Post a Comment