Kurds prevail in border battle The Daily Telegraph (Sydney), Australia Oct 20, 2014 19 KURDISH forces in the Syrian town of Kobane have repulsed a new attempt by Islamic State fighters to cut off the border with Turkey as troops battled the jihadists in neighbouring Iraq. It came as the US military said it had unleashed 25 more air strikes in Syria and Iraq since Friday, hitting IS and the oil infrastructure they control. But while Washington said it saw “encouraging” signs, it warned the raids might not prevent the fall of Kobane, and its priority remained the campaign against IS in Iraq. Despite a wave of coalition air strikes in recent weeks, Iraqi forces are struggling to regain and hold ground from jihadists. Heavy IS mortar fire on Saturday hit the Syrian side of the border crossing with Turkey which is the Kurdish fighters’ sole avenue for resupply and the only escape route for remaining civilians, Kurdish official Idris Nassen said. At least three rounds crashed onto Turkey’s side of the border, one of them near a hill where the Turkish army is deployed. The jihadists had launched a fierce attack from the east towards the border gate before being pushed back, Nassen said. IS suffered heavy losses in the fighting and was forced to send in reinforcements as an expert claimed that their decision to engage in street battles within Kobane could be backfiring. Instead of deploying its regular “pincer movement” which yielded success on northern Syrian battlefields, IS has been forced to battle the besieged Kurds in the town centre of Kobane — a move which has left the extremist militants exposed for longer periods to attacks from US and Arab jets. UK military research analyst Justin Bronk told reportersl that while IS’s smaller numbers were offset by their superior firepower in battlefield scenarios, it was a huge drawback in a fight on unfamiliar streets where the Kurds could employ guerilla tactics from the alleys and buildings. When forced together taking cover, the jihadis were often being taken out by fighter jets. UN Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura warned earlier this month that about 12,000 civilians remained in and around Kobane, and risked “massacre” if the jihadists cut off the border. Of the 15 air strikes that had occurred in Syria since Friday, 12 had been aimed at “degrading and destroying their oil producing, collecting, storage and transportation infrastructure”, the US Central Command said.
Posted on: Mon, 20 Oct 2014 02:19:18 +0000
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