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These articles reveal the deception involved in America's "war on ISIS"
ISIS Video: America’s Air Dropped Weapons Now in Our Hands
In a new video, ISIS shows American-made weapons it says were intended for the Kurds but actually were air dropped into territory they control.
At
least one bundle of U.S. weapons airdropped in Syria appears to have
fallen into the hands of ISIS, a dangerous misfire in the American
mission to speed aid to Kurdish forces making their stand in Kobani.
An
ISIS-associated YouTube account posted a new video online
Tuesdayentitled, “Weapons and munitions dropped by American planes
and landed in the areas controlled by the Islamic State in Kobani.”
The video was also posted on the Twitter account of “a3maq news,”
which acts as an unofficial media arm of ISIS.
The outfit has
previously posted videos of ISIS fighters firing American made
Howitzer cannons and seizing marijuana fields in Syria.
ISIS
had broadly advertised its acquisition of a broad range of U.S.-made
weapons during its rampage across Iraq. ISIS videos have showed its
fighters driving U.S. tanks, MRAPs, Humvees. There are unconfirmed
reports ISIS has stolen three fighter planes from Iraqi bases it
conquered.
The
authenticity of this latest video could not be independently
confirmed, but the ISIS fighters in the video are in possession of a
rich bounty of American hand grenades, rounds for small rockets, and
other supplies that they will surely turn around and use on
On
Monday, White House Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes said
the U.S. government was confident that the emergency airdropped
supplies for the Kurdish forces near Kobani were falling into the
right hands.
“We
feel very confident that, when we air drop support as we did into
Kobani… we’ve been able to hit the target in terms of reaching
the people we want to reach,” Rhodes told CNN. “What I can assure
people is that, when we are delivering aid now, we focus it on the
people we want to receive that assistance. Those are civilians in
need. Those are forces that we’re aligned with in the fight against
ISIL [the government’s preferred acronym for ISIS], and we take
precautions to make sure that it’s not falling into the wrong
hands.”
ISIS:
Region-wide Genocide
Portended in 2007 Now Fully Realized
Dead
American Journalist the Latest Ploy to Cover-up Regional Genocide
Years in the Making
20
August, 2014
August
20, 2014
(Tony Cartalucci - LD) - American journalist James Wright Foley was
allegedly brutally murdered on video by terrorists of the Islamic
State in Syria and Iraq (ISIS). The development would at first appear
to portray a terrorist organization openly declaring itself an enemy
of the West, but in reality, it is the latest attempt by the West
itself to cover up the true genesis of the
current region-wide catastrophe of its own creation
now unfolding in the Middle East.
As
early as 2007, the stage was being set for the regional genocide now
unfolding from Syria and Lebanon along the Mediterranean to northern
Iraq. The "sudden" appearance of the Islamic State of Syria
and Iraq, otherwise known as ISIS, betrays years of its rise and the
central part it played in Western-backed violence seeking to
overthrow the government of Syria starting in 2011 amid the cover of
the so-called "Arab Spring."
While
the "Free Syrian Army" brand was created and used to
obfuscate the hardcore, sectarian extremism that pervaded mercenary
forces raised against Damascus, Syrian
President Bashar al-Assad had warned
starting in 2011 that it was neither a pro-democratic uprising, nor a
moderate, secular rebellion - but rather hordes of foreign-backed
terrorists with ties to Al Qaeda.
The
US State Department itself would admit that Al Qaeda's Syrian
franchise, Jabhat al-Nusra (an offshoot of ISIS), was among the most
prominent armed militant groups fighting the Syrian government,
beginning in 2011 onward. The US State Department's official
press statement titled, "Terrorist
Designations of the al-Nusrah Front as an Alias for al-Qa'ida in
Iraq,"
stated explicitly that:
Since
November 2011, al-Nusrah Front has claimed nearly 600 attacks –
ranging from more than 40 suicide attacks to small arms and
improvised explosive device operations – in major city centers
including Damascus, Aleppo, Hamah, Dara, Homs, Idlib, and Dayr
al-Zawr. During these attacks numerous innocent Syrians have been
killed.
It
was clear that the nationwide, extensive operations of al-Nusra were
more than an apparition - instead they constituted the true nature of
the armed conflict ravaging Syria - an armed enterprise that was
clearly state-sponsored and the realization of long-laid plans by the
West to reorder the region through chaos.
Rise
of ISIS Portended in 2007
But
even before 2011, analysts and journalists warned of an impending
regional sectarian war being intentionally engineered by the United
States, Saudi Arabia, Israel, and other regional partners. The goal
was to undermine and overthrow the government of Iran by first using
covert violence to eliminate its arc of influence from Baghdad to
Damascus, and of course in Lebanon.
 |
Image:
The war in Syria was always against foreign-backed sectarian
extremists - just as was warned by Syrian President Bashar
al-Assad in 2011. The reason why despite hundreds of millions of
dollars in cash, weapons, and equipment flowing to "moderates,"
Al Qaeda has still managed to become the most prominent militant
group now on both sides of the Syrian-Iraqi border, is because
there were never any "moderates" to begin with.
|
Veteran
journalist and Pulitzer Prize-winner Seymour Hersh warned in a
proph etic 2007 New Yorker article titled, "The
Redirection Is the Administration’s new policy benefitting our
enemies in the war on terrorism?"
that (emphasis added):
To
undermine Iran, which is predominantly Shiite, the Bush
Administration has decided, in effect, to reconfigure its priorities
in the Middle East. In Lebanon, the Administration has coöperated
with Saudi Arabia’s government, which is Sunni, in clandestine
operations that are intended to weaken Hezbollah, the Shiite
organization that is backed by Iran.
The U.S. has also taken part in clandestine operations aimed at Iran
and its ally Syria. A by-product of these activities has been the
bolstering of Sunni extremist groups that espouse a militant vision
of Islam and are hostile to America and sympathetic to Al Qaeda.
Also
in Hersh's 2007 article, was mentioned ongoing support by the US,
Saudi Arabia, and Israel to the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood for the
purpose of creating the networks necessary to execute the coming
violence that would be unleashed in 2011. He reported (emphasis
added):
There
is evidence that the Administration’s redirection strategy has
already benefitted the Brotherhood.
The Syrian National Salvation Front is a coalition of opposition
groups whose principal members are a faction led by Abdul Halim
Khaddam, a former Syrian Vice-President who defected in 2005, and the
Brotherhood. A former high-ranking C.I.A. officer told me, “The
Americans have provided both political and financial support. The
Saudis are taking the lead with financial support, but there is
American involvement.”
He said that Khaddam, who now lives in Paris, was getting money from
Saudi Arabia, with the knowledge of the White House. (In 2005, a
delegation of the Front’s members met with officials from the
National Security Council, according to press reports.) A former
White House official told me that the Saudis had provided members of
the Front with travel documents.
Both
the "Arab Spring" cover, and the networks of armed
extremists were being built simultaneously in 2007, and unleashed in
earnest in 2011 amid a regional political conflagration.
 |
Image:
Just as was predicted, the West's premeditated plan to arm and
back
sectarian extremists would cause regional genocide. Also predicted
was
that these targeted minorities would seek Hezbollah, Syrian, and
Iranian
protection. |
Hersh
would also touch upon the coming sectarian nature of the West's
designs, noting that even former CIA officers knew it would be
precisely the Iranian arc of influence that would end up protecting
religious minorities from the legions of terror the West was
preparing to unleash. Hersh reported:
Robert
Baer, a former longtime C.I.A. agent in Lebanon, has been a severe
critic of Hezbollah and has warned of its links to Iranian-sponsored
terrorism. But now, he told me, “we’ve got Sunni Arabs preparing
for cataclysmic conflict, and we will need somebody to protect the
Christians in Lebanon. It used to be the French and the United States
who would do it, and now it’s going to be Nasrallah and the
Shiites.
It
would be difficult for anyone today to read Hersh's 2007 report and
interpret as anything less than a verbatim outline of what the West
had planned and now, since 2011, fully executed. It would also be
difficult to claim that the regional presence of ISIS is not the full
realization of the conflict Hersh warned the world of in 2007.
ISIS'
Multinational Military Force the Product of Years of Western
State-Sponsorship
It
is confirmed that since 2011, the United States, Turkey, France, the
United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar have been heavily arming
terrorists along both Syria's border with Turkey in the north and
with Jordan in the south. While official speeches from behind podiums
have expressed a reluctance to assist militants fighting in Syria,
the presence of the militants are entirely a product of foreign
backing.
Image:
ISIS began its invasion into Iraqi territory from NATO-member
Turkey, through Syria and riding in Toyota Hilux trucks -
identical to those provided
to "moderates" by the US State Department as
part of multi-million dollar "non-lethal" aid packages.
ISIS did not take these trucks from "moderates," the
moderates never existed to begin with. From the beginning, it was
the West's plan to raise a mercenary army of sectarian extremists
operating under the banner of Al Qaeda.
|
In
the Telegraph's 2013 article titled, "US
and Europe in 'major airlift of arms to Syrian rebels through
Zagreb',"
it is reported:
...3,000
tons of weapons dating back to the former Yugoslavia have been sent
in 75 planeloads from Zagreb airport to the rebels, largely via
Jordan since November.
The
story confirmed the origins of ex-Yugoslav weapons seen in growing
numbers in rebel hands in online videos, as described last month by
The Daily Telegraph and other newspapers, but suggests far bigger
quantities than previously suspected.
The
shipments were allegedly paid for by Saudi Arabia at the bidding of
the United States, with assistance on supplying the weapons organised
through Turkey and Jordan, Syria's neighbours. But the report added
that as well as from Croatia, weapons came "from several other
European countries including Britain", without specifying if
they were British-supplied or British-procured arms.
British
military advisers however are known to be operating in countries
bordering Syria alongside French and Americans, offering training to
rebel leaders and former Syrian army officers. The Americans are also
believed to be providing training on securing chemical weapons sites
inside Syria.
Additionally,
The New York Times in its article, "Arms
Airlift to Syria Rebels Expands, With C.I.A. Aid,"
admits that:
With
help from the C.I.A., Arab governments and Turkey have sharply
increased their military aid to Syria’s opposition fighters in
recent months, expanding a secret airlift of arms and equipment for
the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad, according to air
traffic data, interviews with officials in several countries and the
accounts of rebel commanders.
The
airlift, which began on a small scale in early 2012 and continued
intermittently through last fall, expanded into a steady and much
heavier flow late last year, the data shows. It has grown to include
more than 160 military cargo flights by Jordanian, Saudi and Qatari
military-style cargo planes landing at Esenboga Airport near Ankara,
and, to a lesser degree, at other Turkish and Jordanian airports.
The
US State Department had also announced it was sending hundreds of
millions of dollars more in aid, equipment and even armored vehicles
to militants operating in Syria, along with demands of its allies to
"match" the funding to reach a goal of over a billion
dollars. The NYT would report in their article, "Kerry
Says U.S. Will Double Aid to Rebels in Syria,"
that:
With
the pledge of fresh aid, the total amount of nonlethal assistance
from the United States to the coalition and civic groups inside the
country is $250 million. During the meeting here, Mr. Kerry urged
other nations to step up their assistance, with the objective of
providing $1 billion in international aid.
The
US has also admitted that it was officially arming and equipping
terrorists inside of Syria. The Washington Post's article,
"U.S.
weapons reaching Syrian rebels,"
reported:
The
CIA has begun delivering weapons to rebels in Syria, ending months of
delay in lethal aid that had been promised by the Obama
administration, according to U.S. officials and Syrian figures. The
shipments began streaming into the country over the past two weeks,
along with separate deliveries by the State Department of vehicles
and other gear — a flow of material that marks a major escalation
of the U.S. role in Syria’s civil war.
More
recently, scores of Toyota Hilux pick-up trucks were delivered to
terrorists along the Turkish-Syrian border, which would later be seen
among ISIS convoys invading northern Iraq. In a PRI report titled,
"This
one Toyota pickup truck is at the top of the shopping list for the
Free Syrian Army — and the Taliban,"
it stated:
Recently,
when the US State Department resumed sending non-lethal aid to Syrian
rebels, the delivery list included 43 Toyota trucks.
Hiluxes
were on the Free Syrian Army's wish list. Oubai Shahbander, a
Washington-based advisor to the Syrian National Coalition, is a fan
of the truck.
It
is clear that ISIS did not materialize from sand dunes in Iraq's
northern region, nor are they procuring immense armories of weaponry
by picking Kalashnikovs from date trees. They are the visible
materialization of years of material support openly reported by the
Western media allegedly sent to "moderate rebels" who do
not exist. If they did exist, there has been no plausible explanation
to account for how ISIS has managed to procure more weapons, cash,
fighters, and influence throughout the region than "moderates"
receiving backing from the combined resources of the US, Europe,
Turkey, the Saudis, Qataris, and Jordanians.
Maintaining
Plausible Deniability
Image:
American journalist James Wright Foley was allegedly beheaded
by
ISIS terrorists. Before his execution, a masked terrorists with a
British
accent
threatened the US, the same US that in fact has created, armed,
region.
The depraved propaganda ploy is designed to create plausible
deniability
for the West, creating the illusion that ISIS and the US are
enemies,
not allies.
|
The
logical conclusion to be drawn by those observing the last 3 years of
immense funding, weapon deliveries, political, diplomatic, and even
military training for terrorists fighting in Syria and now in Iraq,
is that there were never any "moderates" to begin with. It
was, as veteran journalist Seymour Hersh had warned in 2007, always
sectarian extremists ideologically aligned with Al Qaeda that the
West had planned to utilize against its enemies in the Middle East.
To
deflect the general public from ever arriving at this obvious
conclusion, a myriad of public relations ploys have been designed to
portray ISIS not as the armed fist of Western hegemony in the Middle
East, but a villain not only beyond its control, but posing as a
direct threat to the West itself. Token bombing in northern Iraq and
the arming of Kurds served dual purposes. The bombings made it appear
that the US was fighting, not backing ISIS, while arming the Kurds
helped further Balkanize Iraq as part of the classic hegemonic
stratagem of "divide and conquer."
More
recently, in what is obvious propaganda, American journalist James
Wright Foley was allegedly abducted, then
murdered on video by ISIS terrorists.
Throughout the video, before the alleged execution, a man's voice,
apparently the masked individual about to carry out the execution,
speaks with a British accent, condemning the United States,
threatening US President Barack Obama, and promising retaliation
against the West.
Regardless
of the veracity of the events portrayed in the video, the fact that
it was created in the first place indicates a need by the West and
those directly handling, arming, and funding ISIS' activities both in
Syria and in Iraq, to create "distance" between the West
and the ISIS mercenaries executing their foreign policy in their
long-planned regional sectarian bloodbath. Videos like those
featuring Foley, splashed sensationally across the front pages of
Western websites and newspapers when US casualties in wars gone bad
are otherwise buried, indicate a concerted propaganda campaign aimed
at manipulating public perception, not honest, responsible reportage.
The
predictable reaction of Americans is to recoil at ISIS' barbarism,
despite similar barbarism being carried out for years in Syria and
Iraq by Western-backed terrorists. With the apparent death of Foley,
the US has created in the minds of many, plausible deniability
regarding its well-documented role in the premeditated creation and
continued perpetuation of ISIS.
For Western special interests willing to lie to invade and occupy
Iraq at the cost of over a million lives, including thousands of
Americans, what would one more murdered American mean in an attempt
to continue advancing its destructive, misanthropic agenda?
It
should be remembered that Western designs in the Middle East are but
one stage of a greater agenda. The reordering of the Middle East with
immense standing armies of terrorists answering to Western dictates,
will be used to move against
Russia in the Caucasus region,
and against China within
and along the boundaries of Xinjiang province.
Assault on Kobane
July
On
July 2, 2014, following the conquer
of Mosul and
large regions of north-western Iraq, the Kurdish region
of Kobanê (Arabic:
عين
العرب, Ayn
Al-Arab)
in central northern Syria bordering Turkey was viciously attacked
by Islamic
State aka ISIS forces
with tanks and heavy weapons brought over from Iraq. According to
Kurdish sources, ISIS has fired more than 3,000 mortars in four
days.[1]
In
addition to the 200,000 people living in Kobane canton in peace time,
there are currently at least the same number of refugees, mostly
Kurds from other northern regions of Syria, taking shelter there.[2]
Erdogan's
border
The
pattern and the involvement of Turkey follows what has been seen in
the eastern part of Syrian Kurdistan since late 2012 with theAssault
on Ras Al-Ayn.[3] The
border regions with Turkey both west and east of Kobane canton are
already controlled by ISIS, including the border posts at Jarablus
and Tal Abyad (see Syrian
Military Maps).
In an "urgent call" for help to the international community
on July 6, the Kurdish National Congress (of Syrian Kurdistan)
pointed out that the attackers are able to move freely across the
border and in Turkey, while the army is turning a blind eye and
wounded ISIS fighters are even treated in Turkish hospitals.[4]
Already
in late May, hundreds of schoolchildren from Kobane went by bus to
Aleppo to do their exams, crossing ISIS-controlled territory. On
return, they were abducted. ISIS released the female students and
younger children, but kept initially 148 13-14 year old ninth grader
boys, promising to release them after they'd receive ten days of
"Islamic education". Which did not happen, Only a small
number were released or managed to flee, and despite protests from
several sides even including Human
Rights Watch,
as of mid-September about 130 of them are still held captive near
Jarablus, with reports of heavy indoctrination and light
torture.[5][6][7]
The
deputy foreign relations minister of the Kobane canton, Idriss
Nassan, detailed the offensive as follows:[8]
- IS began its offensive by first capturing the villages of Zor Mughar, Beyadi and Ziyarete, 40-45 kilometers (25-28 miles) west of Kobani. The YPG pushed IS out of these villages after hard-fought battles. IS left behind more than 100 dead, a Humvee, a tank, some Doushka heavy machine guns and automatic weapons. YPG lost 16 of its fighters.
- On July 7, the IS target was the Kun Eftar village, slightly north of the Turkish sovereign territory of the Tomb of Suleiman Shah. Here YPG lost two fighters but IS lost 20 to 30. IS could not achieve its goals. Next came attacks from Tel Abyad in the east. On July 8, IS attacked Evdiko village 8 kilometers (5 miles) west of Tel Abyad. In that clash, six YPG fighters and civilians were killed. Another IS target was Abu Surra village, 60 kilometers (37 miles) south of Tel Abyad. There, IS blew up a bomb-laden truck at a YPG checkpoint, killing four YPG fighters.
YPG
Snipers in Kobane
By
July 8, Kurdish officials were speaking of at least one village
reclaimed (Zormixar), and 200 ISIS fighters killed, with no word on
their own losses.[9] On
the same day, Kurdish news agency Firat put
the number of killed ISIS fighters at 270, with 21 fighters of
Rojava's self-defense militia People's
Protection Units (YPG)
and one civilian dead on their side.[10]
- IS encountered the toughest resistance in Syria at Rojava and despite all its efforts, could not overcome it. Rojava became a major obstruction to IS.
- Kobane is the weakest link among three cantons of Rojava, which are not contiguous. Nassan and all other Kurds believe that by capturing Kobane, the IS wants to wipe out the autonomy project.
- If Kobane falls, the IS will next target the Mursitpinar border crossing to Turkey to further consolidate its presence on the Turkish border.
- IS cannot establish a land connection between Jarablus and Tel Abyad, which it controls, by using the 85-kilometer (53-mile) road parallel to the Turkish border that links those two towns. They now have to travel 250 kilometers (160 miles) for the same trip.
On
July 11, Firat reports
that the YPG has "for the first time" used anti-tank
missiles, destroying an ISIS-manned tank in the village of
Carikli.[11] Participants
of a solidarity vigil action in the Turkish border village of Ziyaret
report that a train carrying Turkish tanks was seen driving through
the region with unknown destination.[12]
YPG
fighter firing an anti-tank missile on July 11
A
YPG press release on July 13 states that 61 ISIS fighters had been
killed during the last 24 hours in continued attacks on several
fronts.[13] In
another statement ISIS is accused of using chemical
weaponsin
their attacks. Traces had been found on two dead YPG fighters (photos
published with the statement) and a call was made to the
international community to come investigate details, as Kobane's
situation under siege doesn't give the local authorities access to
the equipment necessary to do so.[14]
People
stream across Rojava border in the night of July 19/20
After
thousands attended solidarity events on the Turkish side of the
border, in the night of July 15, about 300 Turkish Kurds teared down
the border fence and crossed into Rojava to join the fight,[15] which
continues on three fronts: To the West around Zor Mixar, to the South
in the villages on the banks of Euphrates, and to the East around
Kendal, Evdıke and Gıre Sor. The nearest ISIS came to the city of
Kobane is 35 kilometers, while their most powerful mortars reach 25
kilometers.[16]
On
July 19, tens of thousands gathered on both sides of the border to
celebrate the second birthday of the so-called "Rojava
Revolution". Despite Turkish police using tear gas and water
cannons trying to stop them, at least a thousand people managed to
tear down the border fence and cross over to Kobane to join the still
ongoing fight against ISIS.[17]
After
some more days of fierce fighting, ISIS had to retreat and on July
22, the Kurds started a counter-offensive named "Revenge for the
martyrs of Kobane" securing the borders of Kobane canton before
ISIS would be able to re-group. The stated goal of ISIS, to conquer
Kobane before the end of Ramadan, had no chance of being reached
anymore.[18]
September
On
September 15, 2014, while over in the US a debate on if and how to
bomb ISIS positions in Iraq and Syria was going on, and how this
could lead to "strange bedfellows", ISIS started their yet
heaviest attacks on Kobane from three directions (see above
illustration) with tanks and heavy artillery and ongoing support from
NATO-member Turkey which keeps the borders open for them. On
September 17 several sources report about a train delivering fighters
and material to the Turkish side of the border near Tel Abyad,
stopping and unloading
to the Syrian side in
the village of Silib Qeran, which has no train station. Due to the
intensity of attacks, the YPG starts to evacuate citizens from
villages east of Kobane town, with the latter said to host
600-700,000 people at that time - about three times as much as
normal.[19][20]
Sweeping through the canton
In
the following days the Jihadis continued to advance towards Kobane
city and came in distance to shell it with long-range artillery.
People started to flee to the Turkish border, where they were stuck
and prevented from entering by Turkish military. Only after Western
Journalists arrived on September 19 was the border finally opened.
People protesting the closed border on the Turkish side had earlier
been treated with tear gas and water cannons.[21] As
of September 20, 45,000 Kurds have crossed the border into Turkey at
eight places, while at least 300 Turkish Kurds crossed in the other
direction to join the fight against ISIS.[22]
September
19: Situation on Turkish border before it was finally opened
In
an interview the Premier of Kobane Anwar Moslem speaks of several
trains who have been delivering support and fighters to the
approaching forces from the Turkish side, and says many eyewitnesses
have seen them. He says he will make them available to journalists if
they come to Kobane.[23] At
a September 20 press conference in Turkey's parliament, MP Demir
Celik claimed that the recipients of the material on the trains were
veteran Turkish Special Forces fighting with "the group
presented to us as ISIS". He claims to have reliable information
that they are the backbone of ISIS' strategical moves from the taking
of Mosul to the ongoing attack on Kobane, numbering not less than
2,000 officers "who in the 1990s were cutting off the noses and
ears of Kurdish (PKK) fighters".[24]
Meanwhile
a Turkish nurse went public with a letter to parliament and several
media organizations, detailing how she has treated many wounded ISIS
members and higher-ups at the private hospital she works at, and now
is "sick and tired" of treating people "who chop off
heads." She says the people arrive there under false name and
are introduced as Syrian "opposition members". Several
details are given.
- "The ISIL commander named Muhammet Ali R. who was admitted to our hospital on Aug. 7 was treated at room number 323. Many of his bodyguards kept watch around the hospital. Many other ISIL commanders like him and soldiers have been treated at our hospital, and returned to war after the completion of their treatment. I don't want to help these people. I want you to inspect these hospitals. And I am referring the owners of the hospital and its management to God."[25]
Refugees
from the villages of Yapsê and Dinayikê, arriving in Suruç on the
other side of the border facing Kobane, report that they have seen a
large number of buses approaching the border in the night of
September 14, one day before the offensive started. They unloaded
what the witnesses claim were "up to 3,000 people with beards
and wearing robes" who crossed the border under Turkish military
supervision and passed through their villages.[26]
These
stories together with the fact that the 49 Turkish hostages held by
ISIS were released on September 20, and the Turkish government
admitted that there has been "a deal", raised questions
with many inside and outside Turkey about what exactly this deal
might have been. Top PKK officials accuse the AKP government of
"selling out Kobane" and threaten to dump the ongoing peace
process between the Turkish Kurds and the government.[27]
Panic spreads
September
22: Kobane border on the Turkish side
As
of September 23, the official number of refugees due to the events in
Kobane reached 130,000, with Amnesty International calling on Turkey
to keep the borders open and the international community to provide
assistance dealing with the crisis.[28] Some
Kurdish sources including the PYD head claim that the numbers are
vastly exaggerated by Turkey.[29] People
trying to return to join the fight after they brought their families
over to Turkey are often not allowed back. By September 24 there are
reports of 5,000 people trying to return but being prevented to do so
by Turkish forces. Some accuse Turkey of having created panic with
those huge numbers and reports of Kobane being "evacuated",
which made them leave in the first place. They suspect the intent is
to "empty Kobane" of Kurds.[30]
A
September 22 YPG statement reports about casualty numbers in the
first week. According to this, 232 ISIS members were killed, four
tanks, 13 military vehicles and 7 others carrying heavy weapons
destroyed. 32 YPG/YPJ fighters lost their lives defending Kobane. The
ISIS advance on the eastern front was halted, while there was still
heavy fighting on the other fronts.[31] A
YPG statement from a day later says 84 ISIS fighters had been killed
during the last day and their advance halted on all fronts, although
intense attacks continued.[32] It
is unclear and not mentioned at all if and how much the US
bombing campaign,
that started in the early morning between the statements and is said
to have included strikes on Tal Abyad, influenced the events.
On
September 27, the BBC claims that "Islamic State fighters
besieging the Syrian town of Kobane on the Turkish border have been
targeted by air strikes, reports from the area say",[33] while
in reality reports from the ground say that there have been no
strikes against ISIS positions by the planes flying over Kobane that
day.[34]
On
September 30, the Syrian
Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR)
reports that "ISIS beheaded 4 fighters from YPG after capturing
them in EIn al-Arab”Kobane” countryside, 3 of them were
females."[35]
October
Closing in on the city
On
October 2, SOHR reports as urgent that ISIS is hundreds of meters
away from Kobane:
- SOHR was informed that clashes took place between ISIS and YPG hundreds of meters away form Ein al-Arab Kobane from the easte and south-east of the city, clashes also taking place 2-3 kms away west of the city, amid fears of breaking into the city by the IS at any moment and commites massacres and kills whats left of the civilians who refused to flee their houses . ISIS have taken over 350 villages in the past 16 days, and displaces no less than 300,000 from Kobane and Its countryside, the IS also stool dozens of thousands of sheep , houses , cars . ISIS also settled its supporters in Zerek village in the western countryside of Ein al-Arab “Kobane” , and slaughtered a Kurdish civilian from Seren area, after he was captured. [36]
Miştenûr
hill overlooking Kobane town
Once
ISIS came into shelling distance of Kobane city, they made use of it
to the extent that several rounds of artillery landed across the
border in Turkey, which led to the Turkish army positioning dozens of
tanks on their side of the border. In the early days of October, the
Turkish parliament approved military action in Syria and president
and prime minister started to make noises of being willing to do
"whatever it takes" to save Kobane. As of October 4, no
action was taken and no "coalition" airstrikes on ISIS
positions were observed.[37] Meanwhile,
reports of Turkish police using tear gas and water cannons against
protesters, as well as the military engaging in cooperation with the
ISIS militants at the border continued.[38]
After
days without advance but shelling of Kobane town and following
promises that they would hold prayer in town on the first day of the
Islamic holiday of Eid
al-Adha (October
4), ISIS started another offensive on October 2 with concentration on
trying to take the strategic hill of Miştenûr overseeing Kobane.
According to an October 4 YPG statement, several attack waves were
repulsed with 67 ISIS fighters and 10 defenders dead.[39]
Following
remarks by US vice president Biden about Turkey's role in the rise of
ISIS and Erdogan "admitting mistakes" to him about "letting
too many people in", on October 4 Erdogan demanded an apology
from Biden or he would be "history to me", denying that he
ever made those remarks and claiming that "Foreign fighters have
never entered Syria from our country".[40] Just
hours later, Biden apologized.[41] On
the afternoon of that day, Kurdish protestors on the Turkish side of
the border threw stones at a Turkish TV team after accusing them of
biased reporting. In the following riot police assault several
Western journalists came under tear gas together with the
protesters.[42][43]
As
on the days before, on October 5 many were watching and cheering from
the Turkish side of the border when YPG destroyed an ISIS tank below
Miştenûr hill:
ill:
Entering the city
With
intensifying shelling and only sporadic "coalition"
airstrikes without effect, on Monday reports of ISIS tanks on
Miştenûr hill and raised black flags in the eastern part of Kobane
started to come in. According to some, street fight inside the city
has started. Writes The Guardian:
- Meanwhile, Saleh Muslim, co-chair of the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union party (PYD), went to Ankara this weekend to hold meetings with Turkish security officials to discuss possible Turkish assistance in defending Kobani against Isis. Turkey’s government has vowed it will not sit idly by and let Kobani fall.
- Turkish media reported that security officials in Ankara urged Muslim to convince the YPG, the armed wing of the PYD that is currently battling Isis in Kobani, to join the ranks of the Free Syrian Army (FSA) and to “take an open stance against the Syrian regime” of Bashar al-Assad.[44]
In
a statement to Firat News Agency, Salih Muslim said that "whoever
is going to act, should do so now."[45] In
a highly informative and pretty much to-the-point article about the
situation, David Stockman closes with the questions:
October
6: Black flag on a smaller hill below Miştenûr oгverlooking Kobane
- If the Turks are unwilling to stop an easily preventable mass slaughter by ISIS on their own doorstep what kind of fractured and riven coalition has Washington actually assembled? And how will this coalition of the disingenuous, the hypocritical and the politically opportunistic ever succeed in bringing peace and stability to the historic cauldron of tribal and religious conflict in Mesopotamia and the Levant that two decades of Washington’s wars and regime change interventions have only drastically intensified?[46]
When
pictures showing ISIS flags raised on a hill over Kobane and more
reports of fighting in the city surfaced in the afternoon, solidarity
demonstrations started all over Europe and in many Turkish cities,
with some of the latter turning violent pretty quickly. By night,
large crowds were for example blocking and marching on the TEM
highway in Istanbul.[47] By
late Tuesday, at least nine people had died in the heavy and ongoing
clashes between Kurds, AKP supporters and the police all over
Turkey.[48] After
a night in which military was deployed in several cities in Turkey's
Kurdish regions to impose a curfew, the death toll had risen to at
least 14.[49]
Airstrikes turn serious
In
the late night of Monday and for the first time in broad daylight on
Tuesday, the "coalition" conducted a series of air strikes
witnessed by journalists on the ground, followed by a rather quiet
morning. According to the Department of Defense:
- An airstrike south of Kobani destroyed three ISIL armed vehicles and damaged another, and another strike southeast of Kobani destroyed an ISIL armed vehicle carrying anti-aircraft artillery. Two airstrikes southwest of Kobani damaged an ISIL tank, and another strike south of Kobani destroyed an ISIL unit.[50]
An
October 7 YPG statement did not mention the air strikes but several
successful operations in direct combat, despite shelling "from
three directions", claiming that in the last 24 hours 67 ISIS
fighters died while the death toll among the defenders was 12.[51]
Statements
from the Turkish president and prime minister told the world that
"air strikes are not enough" to defeat ISIS and kept making
demands that the Syrian Government should be targeted as well before
they participate in any coalition.[52][53]
Eight
air strikes on October 8 "destroyed five ISIL armed vehicles, an
ISIL supply depot, an ISIL command and control compound, an ISIL
logistics compound, and eight ISIL occupied barracks, plus damaged
another", according to a U.S. Central Command statement.
Agreeing with Kurdish sources and contradicting media reports about
the fall of Kobane, the statement says that most of the city remains
under YPG control.[54]
In
an interview on Tuesday evening, Salih Muslim said that the strikes
had started to become effective on Monday (incidently following his
statement that "whoever is going to act, should do so now"),
but pointed out that they wouldn't be necessary if only his people
would be allowed to buy anti-tank weapons and missiles on the
international market and Turkey would open the border gate to make a
delivery possible (which he says they had promised him to do days ago
in Ankara) and/or stop their assistance to ISIS. Like with the Kurds
protesting in Turkey and all over Europe, these are the demands,
contrary to what some Western media make it look like: that anybody
wants Turkey to invade Rojava.[55]
October
11: More than twenty thousand people[56]march
in solidarity with Kobane in Düsseldorf, Germany
In
three October 11 interviews with the Kobane canton premier minister
Anwar Moslem, foreign minister Idris Naasan and PYD co-president Asya
Abdullah, the latter from Kobane city, the officials called for a
corridor through Turkey for humanitarian aid and weapons. While the
fighting morale is said to be high and they think to be able to
defend the city center "for months", all report that there
are still many civilians in Kobane and the ISIS gangs now control
water and electricity supply. According to Asya Abdullah, ISIS
presses local Arab youths in the regions they control into coming to
Kobane as reinforcements, promising booty. Which leads to high
casualty numbers among the untrained fighters. She calls on Arabs and
all other groups in the region to not allow ISIS to "destroy the
fraternity of peoples".[57][58][59]
International
voices like UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
Under-Secretary-General Valerie Amos and UN Special Envoy for Syria
Staffan de Mistura joined the choir demanding immediate aid for
Kobane.[60][61]
After
a week with intensified and thanks to better coordination between YPG
and the US-led "coalition" more precise air
strikes,[62]some
recently lost territory was gained back from the ISIS gangs and a
hill outside town was captured, with the larger Miştenûr hill still
in ISIS hands. Even while still no weapons had reached the Kurds and
ISIS got reinforcements from other parts of their controlled
territory, a YPG commander said on Friday, October 17, that the
initiative was now with them.[63][64]
Airdrops deliver supplies
In
the night to Monday, October 20, for the first time weapons,
ammunition and medical supplies were delivered to Kobane in multiple
airdrops by a US Military C-130 plane. The weapons were supplies
originally delivered to the Kurdish Regional Government in Iraq,
which gave the go-ahead to divert them to Kobane.[65] According
to a Turkish Foreign ministry statement on Monday, Turkish airspace
was not used to carry out the airdrops, but Foreign Minister Mevlüt
Çavuşoğlu claimed that Turkey "is" facilitating Iraqi
Kurdish peshmerga forces to cross into Kobane.[66] On
the same day he was allowed to prominently express his urge to topple
the "Syrian regime" in The
Guardian,
calling on the international community to make "good prevail
over evil" (Turkey over Syria, that is).[67]
On
the day before, Serena Shim, a journalist for Iranian Press TV who
investigated the border incidents were ISIS militants crossed over
from Turkey with the help or turning of a blind eye of the Turkish
military, and was accused by Turkish Intelligence of "spying",
died in a car crash on the way to her hotel in Suruç. Shim was a
U.S. citizen of Lebanese origin.[68][69]
Asked
about the airdrops and Erdogan's remarks about the PYD being a
terrorist organization no different from PKK (and ISIS), State
Department deputy spokesperson Marie Harf insisted that "the PYD
is a different group than the PKK legally under the United States
law"[70] (PKK
is listed by the State Department as a terrorist organisation since
1997. PYD is not on the list).[71]
Following
their reinforcements of the weekend and the US airdrops, ISIS
attacked with full force on Monday, maybe to use the opportunity
before any of the Turkey-announced Peshmerga reinforcements could
arrive. A YPG press release on Tuesday evening speaks of 11 dead
defenders and over 70 dead attackers on several fronts in the last 24
hours, including two foiled attempts at the ISIS speciality of
suicide car bombings.[72]
References
- Jump up↑ Syria conflict: Isis marches further into Syria tipping the balance of power in the civil war, Patrick Cockburn, The Independent, July 15, 2014
- Jump up↑ Urgent Call to the UN, USA, the EU and all international organisations - Stop the ISIS crimes against humanity, KNK Statement, July 6, 2014
- Jump up↑ Kidnapped Kurdish schoolchildren may be being taught to be jihadists by ISIL, Mitchell Prothero, McClatchy, June 21
- ↑ Jump up to:8.0 8.1 Islamic State moves to capture another Turkish border crossing, Fehim TaÅŸtekin, Al Monitor, July 10, 2014
- Jump up↑ Evidence about chemical weapons used in Western Kurdistan (Syria) by ISIS, YPG statement published by Kurdish Info, July 14, 2014
- Jump up↑ Turkey is Supplying Munitions by Train for ISIS Military Attacks on Kobane. , Kurdish Question, September 18, 2014
- Jump up↑ An Exclusive Interview with Premier of Kobane Anwar Moslem About Ongoing ISIS Attacks, Mutlu Civiroglu, September 19, 2014
- Jump up↑ Thousands of ISIS members crossed border with Turkish support, Firat News Agency, September 23, 2014
- Jump up↑ AI: Closing border crossings with Syria will put lives in jeopardy, Firat News Agency, September 23, 2014
- Jump up↑ YPJ Commander: Aircrafts didn't hit ISIS positions in Kobanê, Firat News Agency, September 27, 2014
- Jump up↑ Fears of massacre as Isis tanks lead assault on Kurdish bastion, The Times, October 4, 2014
- Jump up↑ ‘Turkish soldiers met gangs on Kobanê border last night’, Firat News Agency, October 4, 2014
- Jump up↑ US, Turkey Clash Over Biden’s Remarks on Ankara’s Role in Fighting IS: Reports, RIA Novosti, October 4, 2014
- Jump up↑ Nine dead, property damaged as Kurdish anti-ISIL protests spread, Today's Zaman, October 7, 2014
- Jump up↑ Turkish police kills at least 14 in clashes with anti-ISIS protesters, Al Akhbar, October 8, 2014
- Jump up↑ Turkey's Erdogan says Kobani is 'about to fall' to jihadists, ground operation needed, Daily Star Lebanon, October 7, 2014
- Jump up↑ Oct. 8: U.S. Military, Partner Nations Conduct Airstrikes Against ISIL in Syria and Iraq, U.S. Central Command, October 8, 2014
- Jump up↑ Solidarität mit Kobane: Mehr als 20.000 Kurden demonstrieren in Düsseldorf (German), SPIEGEL, October 11, 2014
- Jump up↑ As ISIL advances on Syrian town, UN envoy urges international action to avoid ‘massacre’, UN News Centre, October 10, 2014
- Jump up↑ Press TV reporter in Turkey killed in suspicious car accident [VIDEO], PressTV, October 19, 2014
- Jump up↑ Journalist accused by MIT of spying dies in car accident, Firat News Agency, October 20, 2014
- Jump up↑ Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs) are foreign organizations that are designated by the Secretary of State in accordance with section 219 of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), as amended.
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