US-led air strikes yesterday pushed Islamic State (IS) fighters back to the edges of the Syrian Kurdish border town of Kobane, which they had appeared set to seize after a three-week assault, local officials said.
The town has become the focus of international attention since the group’s advance drove 180,000 of the area’s mostly Kurdish inhabitants into adjoining Turkey, which has infuriated its own restive Kurdish minority — and its NATO partners in Washington — by refusing to intervene.
The group formerly known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant hoisted its black flag on the eastern edge of the town on Monday, but since then, air strikes by a US-led coalition have redoubled. Gunfire could be heard yesterday from the Turkish border.
“They are now outside the entrances of the city of Kobane. The shelling and bombardment was very effective and as a result of it, IS have been pushed from many positions,” said Idris Nassan, deputy foreign minister of Kobane District. “This is their biggest retreat since their entry into the city and we can consider this as the beginning of the countdown of their retreat from the area.”
Islamic State had been advancing on the strategically important town from three sides and pounding it with artillery despite dogged resistance from heavily outgunned Kurdish forces.
Defense experts said it was unlikely that the advance could be halted by air power alone — a stance that left not only Washington, but also the Syrian Kurds’ ethnic kin across the border demanding to know why the Turkish tanks lined up within sight of Kobane had not crossed the frontier.
However, many Turks outside the southeast think it is far better to risk alienating the Kurds than be sucked into a war in Syria.
An unnamed senior US official told the New York Times on Tuesday that there was “growing angst about Turkey dragging its feet to act to prevent a massacre less than a mile from its border.”
“This isn’t how a NATO ally acts while hell is unfolding a stone’s throw from their border,” the official said.
While taking in Kobane’s refugees, Turkey has deep reservations about military intervention. Beyond becoming a target for IS, it fears being sucked into Syria’s war and having to fight the forces of its declared enemy, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
With this in mind, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan has set conditions for Turkey to attack IS: a “no-fly zone” over Syria near Turkey’s border; a safe zone inside Syria to enable refugees currently in Turkey to return; and the arming of moderate opposition groups to help topple al-Assad.
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