[It looks for the first time since Sept. 15 last, when the massive ISIS onslaught on Kobane had commenced, that the marauders are really on the back foot; thanks to the valiant Kurdish fighters on the ground and the much intensified airstrikes from above. It is a welcome development that the political representatives of the Kurdish fighters, the PYD, and the US had a direct talk in Paris this weekend. It opens up the possibility of coordinating the actions of the Kurdish fighters in Kobane with the "alliance" airstrikes from above; though the US has categorically denied any such coordination as yet given the extremely difficult role its most important ally in the immediate vicinity, Turkey, is playing. (Even Joe Biden, the other day, had to publicly apologise to assuage the feelings of Erdogan.)]
I/III. http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2014/10/us-pounds-isil-around-kobane-third-day-20141016192249364260.html US steps up strikes on ISIL in Syria's Kobane *US says it carried out 14 air strikes on ISIL targets on Wednesday and Thursday as Kurdish commanders ask for weapons.* Last updated: 16 Oct 2014 22:46 Intensified US air attacks have pounded ISIL targets in and near the Syrian border town of Kobane for a third day, with 14 reported in the last 24 hours, as Kurdish commanders asked for more weapons to push the group back. The attacks on Wednesday and Thursday appear to have slowed the group's advances, but "the security situation on the ground in Kobane remains tenuous," the US defence department said in a statement on Thursday. Targets hit included 19 buildings, two command posts, three fighting positions and three sniper positions, it added. The US said the attacks had brought to 53 the number of raids in and around Kobane since Monday. Al Jazeera's Bernard Smith, who is at the border between Syria and Turkey, reported at least five heavy bombardments late Thursday afternoon. "Those air strikes have enabled Kurdish fighters in Kobane to regain ground that they have lost to ISIL," he said. The US defence department said on Wednesday the air strikes had killed several hundred Islamic State fighters <http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2014/10/us-hundreds-isil-rebels-killed-kobane-2014101614044473902.html>, it cautioned that the town could still fall to the group, which has seized large parts of Iraq and Syria. "The more they want it, the more resources they apply to it, the more targets we have to hit," John Kirby, the Pentagon press secretary said, adding: "We know we've killed several hundred of them." However, an unnamed Syrian Kurdish official told the AP news agency that his fighters needed weapons to beat ISIL on the ground, and that air strikes were not enough - a common call since the US-led coaltion began its bombing campaign. On Thursday, the US central command, which commands US forces in the Middle East, said the latest attacks were designed to disrupt ISIL's reinforcement and resupply efforts and to prevent it from "massing combat power on the Kurdish-held portions of Kobane". Also on Thursday, the Pentagon said talks between the US and Turkey on a possible Turkish role in combating the ISIL went "very, very well," "The discussions went very, very well. They did center around looking for other ways and other contributions that Turkey can commit to this," Kirby told reporters. "The discussions were positive, we think ... our team's coming away with, I think, a general good report here but I wouldn't get ahead of anything Turkey may or may not do." Meanwhile, at least 47 people were killed and more than 120 wounded in bombings and mortar strikes blamed on ISIL across Iraq on Thursday. Source: Al Jazeera and agencies II/III. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-10-16/kobane-18yo-detained-in-turkey-then-returned-to-warzone/5818702 Returning to Kobane: 18yo woman fleeing Islamic State offensive detained by Turkish authorities, then ejected into warzone By Catherine James on the Turkish-Syrian border Updated earlier today at 2:01am Photo: Kobane refugee Nazdar Abdi, 18, was detained in Turkey for a week before being given an ultimatum: stay in detention or go back to a warzone. (Supplied: Catherine James) Related Story: Several hundred IS fighters killed in Kobane: US Map: Turkey When Naz Abdi fled her hometown Kobane under fear of death from Islamic State (IS) militants, she never imagined Turkish authorities would detain her for a week at the border, much less send her back into the war-torn town as the jihadists' onslaught continued. On October 5, the outgunned Kurdish People's Protection Unit (YPG), the Syrian Kurdish militia that had held off IS militants from taking the Syrian town for 19 days, told all remaining civilians to leave. Naz left her home and country that day, with her father and 16-year-old sister. Her mother and two older brothers had escaped days earlier. The plan was to cross into Turkey, which borders Kobane to the north, and reunite the family in the nearby town of Suruc. More than 180,000 inhabitants from their Kurdish canton had walked this path in the weeks since the battle for the besieged city began, according to the Turkish authorities and aid agencies. But Naz, and at least 230 others who crossed the border into Turkey that day, would never receive refugee status. "We arrived at the official border crossing. There, the army said 'we will take you to Suruc by ambulance'. We didn't understand why they were taking us by ambulance," Naz, 18, said by telephone. The vehicle stopped at a high school in a town about 10 kilometres north of Suruc. This was not strange, given the refugee camps in Suruc were full and most schools, mosque halls and many municipal buildings - even the town square - were already sleeping grounds for thousands of homeless Kobanes. Once inside the school's basketball auditorium, armed security forces stood guard at the doors and front gate, not allowing anyone to come or go. Family and friends were not allowed to visit and mobile phones were initially confiscated, apparently an attempt to find footage of or details of fighters from YPG. *Photo:* A Turkish Kurd watches the Syrian town of Kobane from near the Mursitpinar border crossing, on the Turkish-Syrian border. (Reuters: Kai Pfaffenbach) <http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-10-16/turkish-kurd-watches-syrian-town-kobane/5819028> "They told us 'you will stay only one night'. But the next day they didn't release us," Naz said. "Then the next day they told us the same. And in that process, they kept asking us weird questions like 'why were you in Kobane? Why did you leave Kobane so late?'" Among those detained as suspected YPG fighters, or those suspected of having strong YPG connections, were at least 10 children under the age of 10. Days of hunger strikes to protest the situation were ignored. An application by a lawyer to contest the legality of the detention to the Suruc criminal judge of the peace was rejected. One family was released, while the rest continued to be interrogated about their YPG links. They were moved to another location and joined by another group of refugees, also under investigation. After more than a week the Turkish authorities gave them an option: remain in detention or return to Kobane. "They told us Monday evening 'those who want to go to Kobane, you can go'. And 78 of us went," Naz said. 'Leave our land', Turkish police told Kobane locals In the week since Naz had crossed into Turkey, IS had raised two flags in the east of Kobane <http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-10-07/islamic-state-militants-raise-flag-in-eastern-kobane/5794394>, and there were widespread media reports that fighters had taken control of over a third of the city. By Saturday, the United Nations special envoy for Syria was warning the international community of Kobane becoming another Srebrenica - the 1995 massacre by Serbian forces of some 8,000 Muslims in Bosnia. Naz recalls the aching goodbye to her father and sister, who remain detained in Suruc. "When I returned to Kobane, my father was very sad. He was crying. But he told me 'when you go back to Kobane, hold your head high'," she said. Under the cover of darkness, the 78 detainees were escorted by a heavily-armoured police vehicle convoy to the border gate at the west of the city, still under YPG control. "The police just opened the bus door and we went by ourselves, walking across. They told us 'go, quickly. Go back to your home. Leave our land'," she said. Emma Sinclair-Webb, a Human Rights Watch senior researcher in Turkey, points out that the detention of people seeking refugee status in a foreign land is nothing new. International law allows quite broad grounds on which a nation can administratively detain foreigners deemed to be in the country illegally. But the situation for the first 230-odd people detained 10 days ago, after more than 180,000 people had crossed the border and were free to roam, does seem particularly unjust. "Lawyers have appealed to the court again to look at this detention. So the court has to give a decision on that," Ms Sinclair-Webb said. "What I would like to see coming out of the judicial review is that the decision on this group not be taken as a block decision; it shouldn't be about the group as a whole. "A review has to look at them on a case by case basis." In her initial investigations into the matter, Ms Sinclair-Webb spoke to the Suruc deputy governor, who explained that the security forces had detained the people on October 5 after acting on intelligence that there was a group of YPG coming across the border. As for being told they could remain detained or return to Kobane, Ms Sinclair-Webb says it is "complicated". "Basically, those who went back were given the choice to stay or to return. It is kind of a voluntary return in that there were others who were in the same position, who chose not to return, and they have remained [in Turkey]," she said. <http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-10-16/refugees-wait-behind-a-fence/5819346>* Photo:* Refugees wait behind a fence before they cross the border from Syria into Turkey near Suruc, Turkey. (Getty Images: Carsten Koall) <http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-10-16/refugees-wait-behind-a-fence/5819346> Kobane families separate in bid to stay alive Naz is not concerned about who is or is not YPG. No longer living in a fixed home, she works with four or five others as a "journalist", she says. As she crossed the city from the west on Wednesday, she described a place where everyone she saw was armed, though in relatively good spirits. "As you know, it's been 30 days since IS has been using tanks, heavy weapons, and bombs against us. A lot of homes are destroyed. It looks very bad in some parts," she said. "Everybody is carrying a gun, everybody has weapons - even the old people who I saw here. "I saw a lot of people and they are not demoralised, everyone looks well." While she does not carry a weapon herself, she says she always travels with someone who does. The city has broken up its remaining families, splitting them between buildings and basements. "We know some places under the ground, some people are living there, but there are a lot of families living in their homes," she said. "We are going to them and telling them not to live together, we tell them to separate, because if there are a lot of people in one place and if a bomb hits there, then many people will be killed." As for the fear of what may come if IS prevails, Naz says it is present, but their cause is greater. "There is a sense of fear in me and in almost everybody because there are planes over the city, there are big bombs, there are attacks and shellings," she said. "But we are fighting for our freedom and this is giving us a great deal of courage, so I can say ultimately we are not afraid." Kurds accuse Turkey of tacit support for IS Turkey's detention of the people for their suspected involvement with YPG, the group credited with defending the otherwise defenceless Kobane, underlines the dilemma Turkey faces: how to deal with those it has regarded as terrorists for much longer than IS has been around. The YPG is seen by many in the Turkish government as an extension or closely-aligned Syrian branch of the Turkish-based Kurdish separatist militia the PKK. The Turkish military and the PKK had been locked in a civil war for almost 30 years until last year, when a precarious ceasefire agreement was signed. But Kurdish anger is brewing over Turkey's apparent indifference to Kobane as IS advances with a barrage of bombs within plain sight of the Turkish military. "Everybody is carrying a gun, everybody has weapons - even the old people who I saw here. "I saw a lot of people and they are not demoralised, everyone looks well." While she does not carry a weapon herself, she says she always travels with someone who does. The city has broken up its remaining families, splitting them between buildings and basements. "We know some places under the ground, some people are living there, but there are a lot of families living in their homes," she said. "We are going to them and telling them not to live together, we tell them to separate, because if there are a lot of people in one place and if a bomb hits there, then many people will be killed." As for the fear of what may come if IS prevails, Naz says it is present, but their cause is greater. "There is a sense of fear in me and in almost everybody because there are planes over the city, there are big bombs, there are attacks and shellings," she said. "But we are fighting for our freedom and this is giving us a great deal of courage, so I can say ultimately we are not afraid." Kurds accuse Turkey of tacit support for IS Turkey's detention of the people for their suspected involvement with YPG, the group credited with defending the otherwise defenceless Kobane, underlines the dilemma Turkey faces: how to deal with those it has regarded as terrorists for much longer than IS has been around. The YPG is seen by many in the Turkish government as an extension or closely-aligned Syrian branch of the Turkish-based Kurdish separatist militia the PKK. The Turkish military and the PKK had been locked in a civil war for almost 30 years until last year, when a precarious ceasefire agreement was signed. But Kurdish anger is brewing over Turkey's apparent indifference to Kobane as IS advances with a barrage of bombs within plain sight of the Turkish military. III/IV. http//www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-29650588 16 October 2014 Last updated at 17:40 Mark Urban <http://www.bbc.com/news/correspondents/markurban> Diplomatic and defence editor, BBC Newsnight Islamic State: What has Kobane battle taught us?Kobane has been hit by dozens of airstrikes *After a month of fighting, defenders of Kobane say Islamic State (IS) has been virtually driven out of the Syrian town. So what has been learned from this battle?* *1. Kobane is not "strategically" important.* At least not in the classic sense of that word. It will not decide the fate of the Syrian civil war or indeed of the Pentagon-led campaign, designated Operation Inherent Resolve, against IS. The primary importance of Kobane, a town populated by Kurds on the border with Turkey, lies in the scale of human misery that the battle and its displacement of 250,000 people has created. This has had knock-on effects on the Kurdish relationship with Turkey, where most of those people have gone. Turkey has been trying to push forward a peace process with its own Kurdish population following a long insurgency. The battle has also aggravated Turkey's relationships with its allies. In terms of a win for IS, it is in aggravating these tensions that Kobane comes closest. A number of Kurds have been killed and 250,000 displaced *2. Both IS and the Pentagon chose to fight there for propaganda reasons.* As far as the US-led coalition is concerned, Syria comes second, for the time being at least. General John Allen, co-ordinating the campaign, noted on Wednesday that "the emergency in Iraq right now is foremost in our thinking". But if that's true, why have there been so many air strikes around the Kurdish town? Central Command says there have been dozens this week, with 14 between Tuesday and Wednesday. The battle has undoubtedly presented IS with a chance for a big propaganda win and, therefore, the coalition with a need to deny them that gain. Whether or not Kobane holds out long term, the US and its allies have now used it as an opportunity to show solidarity with the Kurds and pummel their mutual enemy. By avoiding a commitment to hold the town, and even implying that it's likely to fall, US commanders have tried to deny any propaganda advantage. Crowds have shouted anti-IS slogans from the hillsides in Turkey *3. Geography has been critical.* It is Kobane's location on the Turkish border that has prevented it turning into a siege in the true sense of it being surrounded. It is also its physical location that made it the subject of worldwide TV coverage, as journalists have watched the battle unfolding from nearby hilltops in Turkey. This proximity has allowed fighters to come in and out and some limited re-supply. In the last extreme it would allow the town's defenders to escape. The Kurds have made many accusations against the Turkish authorities on the border, including that they have prevented re-supply and disarmed their fighters trying to leave Syria. There is considerable truth in this, as those fighting across the border in Syria are an arm of the same movement as Turkey's domestic Kurdish enemy, the PKK. But journalists in Suruc, the nearby Turkish frontier town, have met fighters who have been passing back and forth. It is also reasonable to infer that Kobane's defenders would have run out of ammunition by now if re-supplies had not been coming across the border. One well-placed Turk told me that supplies had indeed been allowed across. There's one more intriguing aspect to the geography. It is also, almost certainly, helping the coalition to achieve its high strike rate in the town. Whether the eyes doing the targeting are actually in Turkey or have crossed into Kobane itself may not become clear for a long time. But the rate of air strikes, accuracy, and general absence of drones over the area all point to targeting from the ground. Of course all of these geographic factors underline the difficulty in achieving the same effects somewhere deeper in Syria. Events in Kobane have been monitored by Turkish forces *4. By concentrating in one area, IS gives its enemies the opportunity to kill them.* The Pentagon claims to have killed "hundreds" of jihadist fighters in the town. Whether or not this is an over-estimate, reliable reporting in the past 36 hours suggests some kind of pull-back by IS. Are they just re-grouping or is the fight proving too costly? The anti-IS campaign so far has actually had great difficulty in generating the kind of intelligence that allows effective strikes. That and the dispersal of IS fighters among civilian communities are the prime reasons why 90% or so of the missions designated for bombing have not released their weapons <http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-29556195>. But when the IS fighters gather for an assault, opportunities are created for the US and its allies. This happened in the open territory around Iraq's Mosul dam at the start of the campaign against IS, and again in Kobane, where the evacuation of most civilians has allowed strikes to go ahead at low risk to them. There can be little doubt that many or even most weapons dropped there have struck home. Areas surrounding Kobane have also been hit from the air *5. By distracting IS from the battle in western Iraq, it is in the coalition's interest to keep Kobane going for as long as possible.* Recent gains by the militants in the Iraqi province of Anbar have caused the most worry to the Pentagon. These have shown the continued weakness of the Iraqi army, and exposed the remaining Sunni tribal allies of the Baghdad government to massacre. This week, US advisers have been inserted into some of the Iraqi bases that are still holding out in Anbar, and one in Diyala province too. The aim is to co-ordinate a much more aggressive air effort than has been possible up to now. In this sense, the Americans have been using air power in Kobane, away from where they really need it, because they have lacked the means to target IS in Anbar with the same intensity. For IS though, the Kobane battle acquired its own logic, drawing in heavy weapons such as tanks and artillery, that might have been better used elsewhere. Each side has had its own reasons for continuing the fight in the Syrian town. But even an IS-friendly assessment of the battle would have to conclude that it had been long and difficult and hardly the kind of whirlwind victory that it won time and again in northern Iraq back in June. The hills around Kobane have been used as a vantage point IV. http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Middle-East/2014/Oct-17/274394-us-opens-talks-with-syrian-kurdish-group.ashx Oct. 17, 2014 | 12:43 AM U.S. opens talks with Syrian Kurdish group Kurdish men walks close to the Turkish-Syrian border as smoke rises from the Syrian town of Kobane, also known as Ain al-Arab, as seen from the southeastern village of Mursitpinar, in the Sanliurfa province, on October 16, 2014. AFP PHOTO / ARIS MESSINIS The Daily Star WASHINGTON: The U.S. State Department has held direct talks with Syria's main Kurdish political party the PYD, as coalition airstrikes pounded ISIS positions in the border town of Ain al-Arab, where Kurdish fighters made gains against the jihadists militants. The weekend meeting in Paris, the first direct talks between the two sides, is likely to further complicate ties between the U.S. and Turkey, which are negotiating over Ankara's contribution to a global coalition that aims to defeat ISIS in Syria and Iraq. State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki predicted that Washington would continue to engage with the Kurdish party, although she said the U.S. is not actively working with the PYD against the Islamist extremists. The meeting "does not represent coordination - it represents one conversation," Psaki said. The PYD is the Syrian affiliate of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which has attacked Turkey for decades and is considered a terrorist group by Ankara and Washington. The news came as U.S. military fighter and bomber planes carried out 14 airstrikes against ISIS targets near Ain al-Arab Wednesday and Thursday, the U.S. military's Central Command said. The airstrikes appear to have slowed the militant group's advances but "the security situation on the ground in Kobani remains tenuous," it said in a statement, using the town's Kurdish name. Targets hit included 19 buildings, two command posts, three fighting positions and three sniper positions, it added. Central Command said the latest attacks were designed to disrupt ISIS' reinforcement and resupply efforts and to prevent it from "massing combat power on the Kurdish-held portions of Kobani." The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an anti-regime monitoring group based in Britain, said the death toll since the ISIS offensive began last month had reached more than 660. The dead include 20 civilians, 258 Kurdish fighters, 374 jihadists and nine Syrian rebels fighting on the Kurds' side, it said. Kurdish fighters pounded ISIS positions with at least 16 mortar bombs and pressed ahead with advances near a headquarters that had been seized by the jihadists, the Observatory said. It added that Kurdish fighters killed 20 ISIS militants further east, outside the town of Ras al-Ain, in an attack that saw the YPG, a Kurdish militia, seize a village from the jihadists. As for the U.S.-led coalition's efforts in Iraq, the capital Baghdad is not in immediate danger despite battlefield gains by ISIS in the country's west, a U.S. military spokesman said. "We don't believe Baghdad is under imminent threat," Rear Adm. John Kirby told a news conference. He said Baghdad was not encircled or about to be overrun, despite a recent string of deadly car bombings, including one claimed by ISIS. "There are not masses of formations of [ISIS] forces outside of Baghdad about to come in," he said. Iraqi security forces "continue to stiffen their defensive positions in and around the capital, and in a very competent, capable way." Kirby said "terrible" weather and sand storms in recent days had hampered airstrikes in Iraq, where ISIS fighters have gained ground in Anbar province, west of Baghdad. "It's made it very hard for us to get intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance platforms up over to see what we're trying to do in Iraq," he added. A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Daily Star on October 17, 2014, on page 1. -- Peace Is Doable -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Green Youth Movement" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send an email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/greenyouth. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
