Islamic State (IS) fighters advanced into the southwest of the Syrian Kurdish town of Kobane overnight, a monitoring group said yesterday, taking several buildings to gain positions from two sides of the city.
The prospect that the town on the Turkish border could fall to group formerly known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, who have besieged it for three weeks, has increased pressure on Turkey — with the strongest army in the region — to join an international coalition to fight the jihadists.
From across the nearby Turkish border, two IS flags could be seen flying over the east side of Kobane. Two air strikes hit the area and sporadic gunfire could be heard.
Photo: AFP
IS fighters were using heavy weapons and shells to hit the town, senior Kurdish official Asya Abdullah said from inside Kobane.
IS wants to take Kobane to consolidate a sweep across northern Iraq and Syria in the name of an absolutist version of Sunni Islam.
“They [IS] have crossed into Kobane and control some buildings in the city there,” said Rami Abdulrahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
About 180,000 people have fled into Turkey from the Kobane region. More than 2,000 Syrian Kurds were evacuated after the latest clash, a Kurdish Democratic Union Party member said on Monday.
Turkey, a NATO member which shares a 900km border with Syria, has refrained from joining the coalition against IS, but the plight of Kobane has increased pressure to act.
Turkey says the scope of the campaign in Syria should be broadened to seek to remove Syrian President Bashar al-Assad from power. It has sought a no-fly zone in northern Syria, which would require the coalition to take on al-Assad’s air force as well as IS, a move Washington has not agreed to.
“We are ready to do everything if there is a clear strategy and if we can be sure that our border can be protected after [IS is gone],” Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told CNN International. “If [al-]Assad stays in Damascus with this brutal policy, if [IS] goes, another radical organization may come.”
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