Coalition Warplanes Reportedly Strike ISIS in Syria in Support of Kurds
Warplanes from the American-led coalition fighting militants of the Islamic State were reported on Tuesday to have struck targets in and around the Syrian town of Kobani near the Turkish border in support of Kurdish forces locked in street fighting with the militants.
If confirmed, the reports could indicate an escalation in American-led efforts to help the Kurds resist, if not repel, an onslaught by the Sunni militants whose forces control portions of Syria and Iraq.
But President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey suggested Tuesday afternoon that the strikes may have come too late, telling Syrian refugees at a camp in Gaziantep Province, near the border, that Kobani was about to fall, The Associated Press reported. “There has to be cooperation with those who are fighting on the ground,” he was quoted as saying, while adding that airstrikes might not be enough.
The latest fighting is taking place in full view of Turkish forces who have massed tanks with their cannons pointing toward Syria but who have not opened fire or otherwise intervened.
The United States Central Command did not immediately confirm the news about the coalition airstrikes. Its most recent statement on Monday listed earlier strikes in the area surrounding the beleaguered town, where two black flags have been raised by the attacking militants.
Reporters close to the border said on Tuesday, however, that new attacks by allied warplanes hit militant positions west of Kobani. Reporters were said to have heard the sound of jet engines before two large plumes of smoke rose from the area.
Barwar Mohammad Ali, a coordinator with the Kurdish defenders inside Kobani, said street fighting continued Tuesday morning. While the new round of airstrikes appeared to make a difference, he said, they were still not enough to hold off a larger and better-armed Islamic State force.
Several airstrikes appeared to hit the southern and eastern outskirts of Kobani overnight and on Tuesday morning, he said. “It is the first time that people have the impression that the airstrikes are effective,” he said, referring to Kurdish fighters on the front lines with whom he said he was in touch. “But they need more.”
Defenders had clashed with Islamic State militants on the eastern edge of Kobani, or Ayn al-Arab, as the town is called in Arabic, the main settlement in a farming district of the same name. Several dozen Islamic State fighters were killed and 20, including 10 foreigners, were taken prisoner, he said.
Around 200 Kurdish civilians trying to flee the area crossed into Turkey along with several journalists, Mr. Ali said, and there were reports that they had been detained by the Turkish authorities. Tens of thousands of people have already fled the fighting around Kobani.
One of the detainees, Mustafa Bali, was reached by phone in a basketball hall in a Turkish border village called Ali Kor. He said that he and about 200 other civilians crossed the border into Turkey on Monday after the Kurdish forces known as the People’s Protection Committees, or Y.P.G., urged everyone but fighters to evacuate. Buses took them to the hall, where they are still locked in, he said.
Young men in the group, which also included women and children, were interrogated and asked about Y.P.G. leaders and their relations with them.
SOURCE: Read the full article at NY Times
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