http://globalnews.ca/news/1737996/kurdish-fighters-advance-on-is-group-in-syrian-town-of-kobani-sinjar-mountains/
December 20, 2014 4:18 pm Kurdish fighters advance on IS group in Syrian town of Kobani, Sinjar mountains By Bassem Mroue The Associated Press WATCH ABOVE: Several explosions sent plumes of white smoke into the air above the Syrian town of Kobani on Saturday. The strategic border town has been under siege by Islamic State militants since mid-September. BEIRUT - Kurdish fighters advanced on the Islamic State extremist group in Iraq and Syria on Saturday, pushing into the contested, refugee-packed Sinjar mountains and gaining ground in the embattled Syrian border town of Kobani after heavy clashes, Kurdish officials and an activist group said. In this photo taken Monday, June 23, fighters from the Islamic State group parade in a commandeered Iraqi security forces armored vehicle down a main road at the northern city of Mosul, Iraq. Islamic State shoots down Iraqi helicopter, killing 2 pilots President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference in the Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House in Washington, Friday, Dec. 19, 2014. Obama signs bill that expands fight against Islamic State, raises troop pay Smoke rises after air strikes by Syrian army warplanes on the ISIL-held northern city of Raqqa, Syria on November 25, 2014. Activists say at least 95 killed in Syrian airstrikes on Islamic State group ***In Syria, Kurdish Democratic Union Party spokesman Nawaf Khalil said Kurdish fighters advanced in six neighbourhoods and have besieged the IS-held cultural centre east of Kobani. He added that Kurdish fighters captured the Yarmouk school, southeast of Kobani where eight bodies of IS fighters were found.*** [Emphasis added.] The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the main Syrian Kurdish force known as the People's Protection Units, or YPG, killed 10 IS fighters. The IS group began its Kobani offensive in mid-September, capturing parts of the town as well as dozens of nearby villages. Hundreds of fighters on both sides have been killed since. Kurdish forces have gradually pushed the extremist group back in recent weeks with the help of U.S.-led coalition airstrikes. The push in Kobani came a day after YPG fighters opened a corridor between their positions in northeastern Syria and Mount Sinjar in neighbouring Iraq where Iraqi peshmerga fighters have been on the offensive as well. Earlier this week, Iraqi peshmerga fighters were also able to open another corridor to Mount Sinjar. Iraq's Kurdistan Region Security Council said peshmerga fighters launched a new offensive on Saturday toward Mount Sinjar and were able to capture the nearby area of Mushrefa. The statement said that early Saturday, 32 truckloads of food, water and other aid departed from the northern Iraqi city of Erbil to Mount Sinjar through the "corridor established by the courageous Peshmerga forces." Warplanes from the U.S.-led coalition circled overhead as peshmerga troops returning from the front said the city was full of roadside bombs and snipers. The peshmerga had set up a base overlooking the city on the summit of Mount Sinjar, which included a makeshift hospital, they added. Spokesman Jabbar Yawar said Peshmerga fighters were fighting their way into Sinjar and nearby areas in co-ordination with allied air support. The Islamic State group captured almost a third of Iraq and Syria earlier this year, plunging the region into deep crisis. In early August, the militants captured Iraqi towns of Sinjar and Zumar, prompting tens of thousands of people from the Yazidi minority to flee to the mountain, where they became trapped. Many were eventually airlifted by a passageway through Syria back into Iraq, where they found refuge in Iraq's northern Kurdish semi-autonomous region. -- With reporting by Dalton Bennett in Sinjar. (c) The Canadian Press, 2014 -- 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.
