ISIS Seizes One-Third of Kobani
The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) has seized more than one-third of the Syrian border town of Kobani, Reuters reports, citing the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
ISIS now controls broad swaths of the town, including “all eastern areas, a small part of the northeast and an area in the southeast,” the group told the wire service.
Regional analysts and prominent world leaders have said that the fall of Kobani to ISIS would be a disaster, for both border security and Middle East stability. The U.S., however, has downplayed the battle, saying that preventing the fall of Kobani was not a strategic U.S. goal.
In the same timeframe, the U.S. has struggled to stem the advance of ISIS on Kobani. The battle there, which has gone on for weeks, has already had an impact on neighboring Turkey. At least 21 people were killed yesterday in Turkey, in the worst street violence the country has seen in years after Kurds protested the inaction by their government to protect the town of Kobani.
Analysts say that Turkey’s hesitance to deploy its military to save Kobani reflects a fear of empowering its own Kurdish population. The U.S. has voiced its mounting impatience with Turkey for refusing to join the coalition against ISIS, in its broader push to dislodge the group’s hold on parts of Iraq and Syria.
U.S. and Allies Ready to Consider a Buffer Zone in Northern Syria
The U.S. and the U.K. are willing to “examine” the idea of creating a buffer zone along Turkey’s border with Syria, said U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry. AFP reports Kerry as saying that a move to create a buffer zone as a safe haven for displaced people was “worth looking at very, very closely.”
The move would mark a stark contrast in U.S. foreign policy. The Obama administration has previously resisted establishing buffer zones inside Syria. General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has said that creating a buffer zone “would require warplanes to disable the Syrian government’s air defense system through airstrikes,” according to the New York Times. He earlier contended that it would cost $500 million initially and up to $1 billion per month to maintain a no-fly zone over Syria.
In contrast, Turkey has long demanded a no-fly zone and greater efforts against the forces of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Turkey’s leaders have made it a condition before joining the U.S.-led coalition against ISIS. President Francois Hollande of France has also supported the idea of a buffer zone.
The debate over a buffer zone and no-fly zone has been raging for much of Syria’s war, which is now in its fourth year and has seen roughly half of Syria’s population displaced. In 2013 the U.S. Institute of Peace convened panelists in Washington to debate the options for a no-fly zone. You can watch the video of that discussion here.
With the Global Focus on ISIS, Syria’s Government Continues to Battle Rebel Groups
As the U.S. led coalition carries out airstrikes against ISIS in northern and eastern Syria, Syrian government forces have continued attacks on rebel-held areas ‘with renewed intensity, the New York Times reports.
According to the article, regime troops have continued to drop barrel bombs on a daily basis in Aleppo. A government bombing of the town of Saraqeb in the northern province of Idlib killed two civilians.
AFP reports that at least eight people, among them three children, were killed in government shelling in Homs, targeting one of its last rebel-held districts.
The ongoing regime attacks on civilians, paired with the simultaneous U.S.-led attacks on ISIS and al-Qaida, have fueled frustration among Syrians on the ground. As they see it, the strikes on ISIS have given a ‘free hand’ to the Assad government to continue its assault on opposition-held areas.
The New York Times reports that with both Assad’s air force and U.S. warplanes in the sky, “attacks by the Syrian government can be mistaken for American ones, including raids that kill civilians.”
Syrians No Longer Allowed in Jordan, Aid Agencies Say
Jordan is refusing to let Syrian refugees cross the border, aid agencies said on Wednesday.
“We have not recorded any Syrian refugees crossing into Jordan in the past week,” said Andrew Harper, the top official with the United Nations refugee agency in Jordan, according to the New York Times.
Jordan has denied such accusations, saying that those who cross are subject to security assessment on the field. “There is no change on our open-border policy,” said Mohammad Momani, a Jordanian government spokesman.
As of late September, Jordan had taken in over 600,000 Syrian refugees, putting a severe strain on the country and its resources. The crisis had cost Jordan an estimated $5 billion by the end of 2013, according to former Jordanian official Marwan Muasher, now based at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. In comparison, the government said that it had received just $800 million in international donor funds in compensation.
As one of five Arab countries to join the U.S.-led attacks on Syria, Jordan is in a precarious position. Jabhat al-Nusra, Syria’s al-Qaida affiliate that has been targeted in the strikes, is practically on Jordan’s doorstep.
In response to threats of retaliation, Jordan has taken measures to protect its borders and impose strict laws against the flow of fighters going in and out of Syria. The New York Times writes that Jordan recently arrested ISIS supporters who were accused of recruiting for the group in Jordan.