KOBANI, October 31 -- Fighters from the Islamic State have shelled the border crossing between Syria and Turkey in their latest attempt to stop an expected arrival of Kurdish troops from Iraq to help defend Kobani. Friday’s bombardment of the Mursitpinar post came a day after a first contingent of Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga forces entered the Syrian town of Kobani from Turkey to join the effort to break an ISIS siege. ISIS on Friday also hit the al-Jemrok district in the north of Kobane with mortar shells and heavy machine gun fire. They also attacked Kurdish forces using a suicide car bomb. ISIS attacked Kobani six weeks ago, capturing dozens of nearby Kurdish villages in addition to parts of the border town. Kobani is now under attack from three sides and weeks of US-led air strikes have failed to break the ISIS assault. Syrian Kurds have pleaded for advanced weapons to help them gain the upper hand. Around 100 troops arrived by plane to south-eastern Turkey on Wednesday, joined later that night by a land convoy of vehicles carrying arms including a cannon and truck-mounted machine guns. Activists say there are about 1,000 Syrian Kurdish fighters and more than 3,000 ISIS members in the Kobani area. On Wednesday, a group of 50 Syrian rebels entered Kobani - also via Turkey - in a bid to help. The rebels are members of the Free Syrian Army and were meant to help the long-awaited Iraqi Peshmerga and the town's Kurdish defenders. The FSA is a loose umbrella group of mainstream rebels trying to topple Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Thank you for choosing to make a difference through your donation. We appreciate your support.
This website uses marketing and tracking technologies. Opting out of this will opt you out of all cookies, except for those needed to run the website. Note that some products may not work as well without tracking cookies. Opt Out of CookiesCategories
All
Archives
April 2024
|