ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – The Islamic State (ISIS) has brought in heavy weapons and more fighters in its fight for Kobane, the Syrian city’s Kurdish government said, as it called for a safe corridor for trapped residents to escape.
Meanwhile, a reliable source said that the leader of the Democratic Union Party (PYD), whose fighters have been resisting a weeks-long onslaught by the jihadis on Kobane, had rejected a Turkish offer of direct military intervention.
Kobane’s Kurdish local government urged in a statement Friday for the world to rush to the aid of thousands of civilians trapped in the war.
It said that the militants had brought in heavy weapons and fighters from Raqqa in Syria and elsewhere for an intensified assault on Kobane.
The statement said that the lives of thousands of people are at imminent risk, with Kurdish fighters and ISIS militants locked in fighting street to street.
It called on the world to help open a humanitarian corridor for the safe exit of the residents.
The statement said that city official wanted the corridor to be under the UN and international coalition – taken as an indirect indication that Turkey should not be involved.
In the same statement, the officials appealed to US-led coalition forces to increase and intensify their air attacks on ISIS positions.
This week US jets intensified attacks on ISIS positions near Kobane, but only after the militants breached the lines. Now, the jihadis are reported to have captured portions of the town. US military officials have plainly declared that air strikes alone will not save Kobane.
Turkey, which has NATO’s second-largest army and sits directly on the border with Kobane, has been criticized for not intervening to save the town.
But a PYD source, speaking to Rudaw on condition of anonymity, said that party leader Salih Muslim had rejected an offer by Turkey to send in troops, asking for arms instead.
Muslim was in Ankara last week for talks with Turkish military and security officials.
Turkey views the PYD with suspicion because of its links to its own Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which has fought a 30-year war for autonomy.
Amina Zikri, a Kurdistan Region MP who visited Kobane this week, told Rudaw that the town was under intense air raids, but that a greater intensification was needed.
“The minute we arrived the town was struck by nine air strikes,” said Zikri, who was part of a parliamentary delegation sent to report on the town and residents.
“The international community must intensify their air strikes against the ISIS group,” she said, adding that the PYD’s People’s Protection Units (YPG), the force fighting ISIS, was too lightly armed for the fight.
“The YPG fighters have light weapons and all they need is heavy weapons to do their fight,” she said. “They also ask the Kurdish authorities to give them arms.”
Kurdish authorities say they are already arming Kobane’s defenders. ISIS is reportedly fighting with heavy weapons captured from the Iraqi army.
.jpeg&w=3840&q=75)