U.S. Air Drops Weapons for Kurdish Forces Fighting ISIS in Kobani

In the latest escalation in the effort to push back Islamic State (ISIS) from the strategic border town of Kobani, the U.S. military air-dropped weapons and supplies to Kurdish fighters defending the city from ISIS militants, Reuters reports.

According to U.S. Central Command, C-130 cargo planes made multiple drops of arms, ammunition and medical supplies in an attempt to enable continued resistance against ISIS attempts to overtake Kobani.

The provisions are likely to anger the Turkish government, which has openly said that it opposes any U.S. transfer of arms to Kurdish rebels in Syria. Turkey views the main Syrian Kurdish group that is fighting the ISIS militants, the PYD, as an extension of the PKK, a Kurdish militant group that is considered a terrorist entity by Turkey. The PKK has long sought greater autonomy in Turkey.

This weekend Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan told reporters that Turkey would never arm the Kurdish faction. “The PYD is for us, equal to the PKK. It is a terror organization,” he said.

Last week the U.S. confirmed it has engaged in intelligence sharing with Kurdish fighters and would not rule out future arms transfers to the group.

The arming of the Kurdish fighters comes after Kurdish warnings that Kobani might fall to ISIS, prompting the U.S. to intensify airstrikes on the town, with 135 airstrikes against its forces in and near Kobani in the past two weeks.

U.S. officials have said that the airstrikes had slowed the militant advances into Kobani, killed hundreds of fighters and destroyed or damaged its assets.

The monthlong battle for Kobani has seen some of the fiercest fighting this past weekend, with ISIS firing 44 mortars into Kurdish areas of the town and detonating two car bombs over the weekend.

ISIS reportedly took heavy losses in Kobani on Sunday. According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, The corpses of at least 70 militants were brought over to an ISIS-controlled mortuary in the town of Tal Abyad, following report of heavy losses of ISIS fighters this weekend.

Cross-Border Kidnapping Raises Questions About How Turkey Will Face ISIS Threat

ISIS elements reportedly attempted a kidnapping in the Turkish city of Urfa, in a cross-border operation aimed at capturing a Syrian rebel leader.

The Telegraph reports that Abu Issa, the leader of Thuwar Raqqa, a Syrian rebel group who has been fighting ISIS in the town of Kobani, was shot and wounded in an apparent kidnapping attempt by the Islamic State in Urfa.

“The flagrant kidnapping attempt in the southeastern town of Urfa shows how [ISIS] can still operate inside this Nato country with relative impunity,” the Telegraph wrote.

The kidnapping also raises questions about Turkey’s ability to stop foreign fighters operating on its territory. In recent months, Turkey has stepped up security measures aimed at curbing the flow of foreign fighters across its more than 500-mile border with Syria. But analysts say it will be extremely difficult for Turkey to control its border.

“They can’t control all illegal crossings. There are lots of illegal crossings that are hard to control, where people walk through the barbed wire,” Didem Akyol Collinsworth told Syria Deeply.

The U.S. has pressured Turkey to join the U.S.-led coalition against ISIS, but Turkey has said it will not join the fight unless a buffer zone is created along the Turkish-Syrian border. The hope is that a buffer zone would allow Syrian refugees to live safely within their own borders, while protecting Turkey from some of the spillover over of the conflict. The U.S. has largely rejected the notion of a buffer zone, which would involve an intensive and expensive effort to maintain.

Lebanon Imposes Strict Restriction on Syrian Refugees Entering the Country

Lebanon has dramatically cut down the number of Syrian refugees it is allowing into the country, according to U.N. officials.

“Our understanding is that people who are coming to claim refugee status are not being permitted to enter in the way that they were previously,” said Ninette Kelley, the head of UNHCR in Lebanon, in remarks to AFP.

“Anyone who passes the Syrian-Lebanese border will be questioned and should have a humanitarian reason for their entry. This will be decided by the Interior and Social Affairs ministries,” said Lebanon’s Social Affairs Minister Rashid Derbas, as quoted by Al Arabiya.

In the wake of Syria’s conflict, Lebanon has become the country with the highest per capita concentration of refugees in the world. It is home to more than 1.1. million Syrian refugees, who now make up more than 20 percent of its population.

The political and social climate in Lebanon has become increasingly hostile to Syrian refugees. Resentment against Syrians has grown, with many complaining that refugees are using Lebanon’s already overstretched resources and creating tensions near border areas. As fighting escalated between the Lebanese army and ISIS militants, there have been several reports of revenge attacks on Syrian refugees, including setting refugee tents on fire.

Recommended Reads:

Foreign Policy: U.S. Ramps Up Push to Save Key Syrian Town

Economist: Bashar al-Assad May Be Weaker Than He Thinks

ABC: Turkey Would Oppose U.S. Arms Transfers to Kurds

NPR: Syria’s Moderate Rebels Say They are Willing, But Need Weapons

TIME: Syrian Women Know How to Defeat ISIS

Photo Credit: Courtesy of AP Images