ISIS Intensifies Siege of Kobani, Reportedly Enters the City
The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) fought some of its heaviest battles so far against Kurdish forces – closing in on the strategic Syrian border town of Kobani, on the frontier with Turkey. The last foreign journalist to leave Kobani gave an eyewitness account to the BBC, saying ISIS vehicles were no more than two kilometers away. CNN reported on Sunday that ISIS had already entered the southeastern edge of the city, engaging Kurds in street-to-street battle.
Kurdish fighters, backed by U.S.-led airstrikes, have been trying to push back an ISIS advance for the past three weeks. A spokesman for Kurdish fighters said that ISIS has managed to push its way to the edge of Kobani and that U.S. strikes have done little to interrupt ISIS gains.
“They are besieging the city on three sides, and fighter jets simply cannot hit each and every ISIS fighter on the ground,” said Idris Nassan, a senior spokesman for the Kurdish fighters told the Guardian.
“What we really need is ground support. We need heavy weapons and ammunition in order to fend them off and defeat them.”
The battle has forced hundreds of thousands of Kurds to flee into neighboring Turkey, practically emptying the city and its surrounding area of civilians.
The fight for Kobani has prompted calls from Kurdish groups to their ethnic compatriots, urging them to join the fight against ISIS. They have responded in force: on Sunday, a female Kurdish fighter carried out a suicide attack against ISIS positions east of Kobani, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
The fight in Kobani is seen as a strategic threat to Turkey. Turkish officials have vowed to protect the town from an ISIS takeover, but have yet to act on the promise.
The Syrian government warned on Friday that any military intervention on its soil would be considered as an act of aggression.
New U.S. Strikes in Syria as Fighting Continues on Multiple Fronts
As fighting continued across Syria on multiple fronts, the U.S. carried out three new airstrikes against ISIS militants, hitting their positions in northeastern Syria, according to U.S. Central Command.
Meanwhile, U.S. officials say that airstrikes that were aimed at the Khorasan Group, a faction of al-Qaida militants said to be plotting attacks on the West, “failed to deliver a decisive blow against them.” Those officials, cited in a report by Reuters, said that many of the suspected leaders and members of the group escaped the attack.
“In the aftermath of the strikes, U.S. officials have dialed back their warnings, saying that any planned attacks by Khorasan may not have been imminent,” Reuters said.
Back in Syria’s war, rebels struggled to fight off a government offensive near Aleppo, as the army moved into a village north of the city. AFP reported on Friday that Syrian troops had seized the town of Handarat, which would allow them to cut off a supply line to a rebel-held area in Aleppo.
Aleppo has been divided between the regime on the western side and rebel territory on the eastern side since the summer of 2012.
In Damascus, President Bashar al-Assad joined prayers for the Eid holiday at the Numan Bin Bashir mosque. It was his first public appearance since July, the New York Times reports.
ISIS Executes British Hostage, Threatens to Kill U.S. Aid Worker
On Friday, ISIS released a video of the execution of British aid worker Alan Hanning. He is shown kneeling and wearing an orange jumpsuit, in the same pose as the three other Western hostages killed in the same manner in August. British Prime Minister David Cameron vowed to “to hunt down [his] murderers and bring them to justice.”
The U.K. has joined the U.S.-led fight against ISIS; last month its parliament approved airstrikes on ISIS militants in Iraq, but not in Syria.
The video also shows the man that ISIS identifies as its next victim, U.S. aid worker Peter Kassig.
An emergency medical technician and former U.S. soldier, Kassig gave an interview to Syria Deeply in February 2013. “Sometimes rebels want to know if I will help train people or if I will join the fight. I always tell them no … for an American young man in my position that would be foolish, and regarded as such by pretty much everyone, including the opposition,” he said.
“I can either be in a position to deliver tens of thousands of dollars of antibiotics for women and children, or I can be another young man with a gun.”
Hezbollah Pushes Back Syrian Militant Offensive into Lebanon
Jabhat al-Nusra launched a major offensive in Lebanon against Hezbollah on Sunday, attacking at least 10 Hezbollah bases along a mountain range close to the Syrian border.
“Armed with mortars and rocket-propelled grenades, the insurgents attacked a large area of territory stretching from south of the town of Baalbek up to areas close to the [Lebanese] border town of Arsal,” Reuters reports.
According to one Hezbollah official who spoke to AFP, five Hezbollah fighters were killed in the clashes after gunman from Syria attacked Hezbollah posts in the town of Nabi Sbat in eastern Lebanon.
This is not the first time that violence from Syria has spread into Lebanon, with Arsal as the flashpoint. ISIS militants fought their way into the town in August, capturing members of the Lebanese army who were battling to push them back. They subsequently began to execute those hostages, creating an outcry in Lebanon and a violent backlash against Syrian refugees.