U.S. Officials, Turkish President Say Kobani Is ‘About to Fall’ as ISIS Advances
Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Tuesday that the Syrian Kurdish border town of Kobani is “about to fall”. to the Islamic State (ISIS). He called for ground operations to defeat ISIS as thousands in Turkey protested against their government’s inaction, Reuters reports.
Hours later, U.S. officials echoed the prediction that Kobani would fall to ISIS control, CNN reports. But they downplayed the significance of the development, saying it is not a major concern.
That puts the U.S. in a minority opinion. Other officials, Kurdish leaders and a wide range of analysts have warned that the capture of Kobani would be hugely significant: a boost to ISIS and a blow to regional security. By many accounts, Kobani would consolidate the ISIS sweep across northeastern Syria and parts of Iraq; one headline from CNN said it would finish its major land grab.
The U.N. envoy to Syria, Staffan de Mistura, has issued a demand for urgent concrete action in response to the ISIS assault on Kobani. “The world, all of us, will regret deeply if ISIS is able to take over a city that has defended itself with courage but is close to not being able to do so,” he said. “We need to act now.”
After several weeks of hesitation and loudening pleas from the Kurds for help to push ISIS back, coalition forces stepped up strikes on Kobani this weekend. The U.S. Department of Defense said there were five coalition strikes around Kobani on Tuesday.
At least 400 people have died in the three-week-long assault on Kobani, while more than 160,000 were forced to flee their homes, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. So far the U.S. led airstrikes have not managed to prevent an ISIS advance on Kobani. In response Kurdish forces have appealed for weapons and ammunition and more air support from coalition forces. “Either we finish them or they will finish us,” an official in Kobani told AFP.
The potential fall of Kobani has increased pressure on Turkey to join the international coalition to fight ISIS. Erdogan has said that bombing alone will not defeat ISIS, setting out specific demands that the coalition would have to take in order to get Turkey’s support.
“We had warned the West. We wanted three things. No-fly zone, a secure zone parallel to that, and the training of moderate Syrian rebels,” Erdogan said in a speech on Tuesday night in the eastern city of Gaziantep. At least nine people were reportedly killed in pro-Kurdish clashes in Turkey; five of them were killed in Diyarbakir, the largest Kurdish city in Turkey’s southeast.
Al Qaida-Linked Rebels Kidnap a Franciscan Priest and 20 Christians
A Franciscan priest and more than a dozen Christians have been kidnapped by Jabhat al-Nusra, al-Qaida’s Syrian affiliate, the Catholic Franciscan Order said on Tuesday. They were taken from the village of Qunyeh in northwestern Syria, close to the Turkish border, AFP report.
Father Hanna Jallouf was kidnapped on the night of October 5, according to a statement quoted by the newswire. The statement also indicated that there had been no contact with the priest and that a number of Franciscan nuns in Qunyeh had taken refuge with local residents.
Among the kidnapped are young girls and boys, according to Fides, a Catholic news agency cited by Reuters.
This is not the first time priests have been targets for kidnap by Islamist militants in Syria. Father Francois Murad, a Catholic Syrian priest, was killed in Idlib in June 2013. Italian Jesuit priest Father Paolo Dall’Oglio, who spent decades promoting religious dialogue in Syria, was kidnapped in July 2013 and is still missing.
Christians made up about 10% of Syria’s population before the conflict began in 2011. Since then the country’s Christians have fled persecution and violence.
Syria Discloses Four New Chemical Weapons Facilities, U.N. Says
Syria disclosed four chemical weapons facilities it had previously kept secret, a special representative of the U.N. secretary-general told the Security Council on Tuesday. The announcement confirmed suspicion that Syria had not shared all of the details and assets of its chemical weapons program.
Sigrid Kaad, special coordinator of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW)-United Nations Joint Mission to Syria, also told diplomats that a fact-finding mission determined that chlorine gas had been used “systematically and repeatedly” in attacks as recently as August.
On September 4 the OPCW issued a statement that said 96% of Syria’s declared chemical weapons had been destroyed, and that preparations were under way to destroy the remaining 12 production facilities.
The newly declared sites raise concerns about the security of chemical weapons in Syria, along with the possibility that militant groups, including ISIS, could get hold of the remaining stockpiles.