Islamic State Steps Up Attack on Kurdish Syria Stronghold

Islamic State militants battled with Kurdish fighters for control of a strategic hill overlooking the Syrian town of Kobani on the border with Turkey, which the jihadist group has been besieging for three weeks.

A tank and some militants standing next to a heavy machine gun were seen on the hill of Mistenur to the east of Kobani, NTV reported yesterday, showing that Islamic State had taken the position. Ahmet Destan, a Kurdish villager, said by phone that the Kurds regained control of it at one point late yesterday amid heavy fighting. A female Kurdish fighter blew herself up in a suicide bomb attack against the jihadists on the hill, the Kurdish Firat news agency reported, saying that the battle continued into the night.

At stake for Kurdish forces defending the town, also known as Ayn al-Arab, is the fate of the autonomous region they set up in 2013 amid Syria’s civil war. Thousands have already fled across the border into Turkey since Islamic State launched its offensive to take the town last month.

Al-Qaeda’s Heirs

“Islamic State is seeking two goals,” said Theodore Karasik, director of research at the Institute for Near East and Gulf Military Analysis in Dubai. “The first is to capture Kobani as part of border control, and to cleanse their territory of groups that will resist their” rule, he said.

Coalition Airstrikes

The militants are seeking to expand territory under a self-declared caliphate that stretches across much of northern Iraq and Syria. In a bid to stop their gains, fighter jets from the U.S. and its allies have struck Islamic State positions in both countries. Kurdish leaders have accused the coalition, and Turkey, of not doing enough to save Kobani from falling.

As the fighting closed in on Kobani, Turkey ordered residents of some nearby border areas to leave for their own safety. Dozens of explosions in Kobani throughout the day sent plumes smoke rising above the skyline, a live broadcast from the Turkish-Syrian border showed.

U.S. Central Command said in a statement the coalition had carried out nine strikes against Islamic State targets in Syria and Iraq yesterday and the previous day. The Pentagon has said that while it’s monitoring the situation in Kobani and has carried out strikes in the area, its efforts in Syria are mostly aimed at areas used as safe havens by Islamic State, while in Iraq it’s bombing in support of local forces.

‘Two Explosions’

Warplanes struck areas around Kobani at about 2 a.m. local time, Ismail Kaplan, local head of the pro-Kurdish People’s Democracy Party said by phone from the border town of Suruc. “I witnessed at least two explosions to the south of Kobani but don’t know the result,” he said.

Few civilians remain in the town, according to the U.K.- based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which is monitoring the conflict via local activists. The Islamic State fighters are equipped with tanks and heavy artillery, outgunning the lightly armed Kurds.

Syria’s Civil War

Syria’s Kurds have gained effective autonomy during the country’s three-year civil war, as central government authority over their region receded. The main Kurdish group there has links to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party or PKK, which has been fighting for autonomy in Turkey for three decades, and is classified as a terrorist group by Turkey and the U.S.

Kurdish politicians in Syria and Turkey have complained of a lack of international support, and say Turkey is seeking to quash the development of Kurdish self-rule in Syria. Turkey, which is pursuing peace talks with the PKK, says it will do whatever is in its power to stop a militant takeover of Kobani.

Turkey’s parliament on Oct. 2 renewed a mandate for military action across its southern borders with Syria and Iraq, citing the regime of President Bashar al-Assad as one of the threats, as well as Islamic State and the PKK. Turkey’s policy in Syria has focused on the removal of Assad since the early stages of the civil war.

Bloomberg