New US-led air strikes targeted Islamic State fighters near the strategic Syrian Kurdish border town of Kobani yesterday amid urgent appeals for action to save it and rising political tensions over intervention by Turkey.
Warplanes from the US-led coalition bombed Isis positions as heavy gunfire was heard inside the town and the UN envoy for Syria called on the international community to act now. The fall of Kobani would be "a massacre and a humanitarian tragedy", Staffan de Mistura told the BBC.
The Kobani battle, highlighting the regional and international complexities of the Syrian war, is also fuelling domestic tensions inside Turkey, where thousands of protesters have taken to the streets to voice anger and frustration about the inaction of the Ankara government.
It has also caused a spat between the US and Turkey over the latter’s commitment to the western-Arab coalition fighting the jihadi group.
Curfews imposed
Following a warning from the Turkish president,
Recep Tayyip Erdogan
, that Kobani was about to fall, Turkish media reports said up to 14 people had been killed in eastern cities and dozens more wounded.
The toll included eight deaths in the city of Diyarbakir, the Dogan news agency said. One man was reported to have been killed by a bullet to the head in Varto in the eastern province of Mus when police allegedly fired live ammunition.
Clashes also took place at protests in the western cities of Ankara and Istanbul. Curfews were imposed in five Turkish provinces.
Mr Erdogan, speaking in the eastern city of Gaziantep, said on Tuesday that a ground operation was needed to defeat Isis – sidestepping accusations that he is unwilling to allow Kurds in Turkey to help their embattled kinfolk in Syria or to deploy the army across the border to fight Isis because of the country’s historic enmity towards Kurdish separatists .
“I am telling the West – dropping bombs from the air will not provide a solution,” the president said to cheers from crowds of Syrian refugees in a speech that was translated into Arabic.
Erdogan also tested the readiness of the US, Britain, France and other allies by calling for a no-fly zone and a secure land zone as well as training for moderate Syrian rebels.
Massive backlash
The Turkish parliament last week authorised the government to take military action against Isis. But Turkey has not announced plans for any operations, with Ankara apparently seeking a commitment from the West to move decisively against the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, as well as the jihadis. Erdogan said he wanted to fight both Isis and the Kurdistan Workers’ party (PKK).
If Kobani does fall, Turkey is likely to face a massive backlash from its Kurdish population. Thousands of people have already arrived on the border from all over the country to offer their support. “If they take Kobani, we know they will come to Suruc,” said Ibrahim Akkus, watching from the nearby hillside on Tuesday.
Isis now controls large parts of both Syria and Iraq and has ramped up its offensive in recent days despite being targeted by US-led air strikes.
Capturing Kobani would give it a direct link between its positions in the Syrian province of Aleppo and its stronghold of Raqqa, further east. It would also give the group full control of a long stretch of the Turkish-Syrian border. – (Guardian service)