Posted on 10/05/2014 7:55:30 AM PDT by GonzoII
Kurdish fighters backed by US-led air strikes battled Islamic State jihadists for control of a key Syrian town Sunday and Turkey evacuated some border areas as mortar fire spilled over.
IS fighters seized part of a strategic hill overlooking the town of Kobane late on Saturday, a monitor said, but their progress was slowed by new strikes from the coalition of Washington and Arab allies.
A Syrian Kurdish official said IS fighters were just one kilometre from Kobane and air strikes are not enough on their own to stop them.
The dusty border town has become a crucial battleground in the international fight against IS, which sparked further outrage this weekend with the release of a video showing the beheading of Briton Alan Henning.
The video -- the latest in a series of on-camera beheadings of Western hostages -- included a threat to another hostage, US aid worker Peter Kassig, whose parents made an impassioned plea for his release.
Fighting raged around Kobane as the jihadists pressed their nearly three-week siege of the town, which saw them make some progress late Saturday, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitoring group.
"IS succeeded on Saturday night in taking the southern part of the Mishtenur hill," the Observatory's Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP.
If the jihadists seize the hilltop, he said, "the whole town of Kobane will be in their sights and it will be easier to take".
Abdel Rahman said seven new coalition strikes against IS positions were carried out in the area late Saturday and the air raids were hindering the jihadist advance.
(Excerpt) Read more at bangkokpost.com ...
air strikes are not enough on their own to stop them.
Then they aren’t the right kind of air strikes...
So what is this I hear about Turkey voting to go to war against ISIS? I don’t see any movement towards fighting ISIS.
Not comfortable with Kurds in Syria AT ALL. They’re using them.
Why are we helping some Muslims kill other Muslims?
Why are we protecting some Muslims from other Muslims?
Why are we fighting to keep a ‘dusty border town’ of Muslims from being taken by other Muslims ?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.