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 Last week Turkish and U.S. officials said Islamic State were on
the verge of taking Kobani from its heavily outgunned Kurdish
defenders, after seizing strategic points deep inside the town.
A dramatic ramping up of coalition air strikes reached a new
crescendo in recent days, with Islamic State targets around Kobani
being hit nearly 40 times in 48 hours. The barrage has halted the
militants' advance, with Kurdish sources saying that Kurdish YPG
fighters had managed to retake some territory.
The four-week assault has increasingly been seen as a key test of
U.S. President Barack Obama's air strike strategy, and Kurdish
leaders have repeatedly said the beleaguered town cannot survive
without arms and ammunition reaching the defenders, something
neighboring Turkey has so far refused to allow.
Islamic State has been keen to take the town to consolidate its
position in northern Syria after seizing large amounts of territory
in that country and in Iraq. A defeat in Kobani would be a major
setback for the Islamists and a boost for Obama.
Jet planes roared over Kobani on Thursday and gunfire echoed across
the Turkish border from the town, as fighting steadily intensified
through the morning, a Reuters witness said.
There were six air strikes overnight to the east of Kobani and
clashes had continued throughout the night according to the UK based
Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, who said neither side had made
significant gains.
"Islamic State are trying to drive the YPG from the south to get
more road access into the town," Rami Abdulrahman said by telephone.
"There were also clashes 6 km (4 miles) west of the city, by the
radio tower," he added.
Sources within Kobani said Kurdish forces had pushed back Islamic
State in southern and eastern parts of the town, which has been
surrounded on three sides by the militants.
"We have seized back quite some territory yesterday," a Kurdish
commander who gave her name as Dicle told Reuters early on Thursday.
"The clashes are still ongoing. We have seen many corpses of IS
fighters yesterday, some had swords with them," she said.
A journalist in Kobani said that air strikes had allowed Kurdish
forces to go on the offensive for the first time since Islamic State
launched their assault four weeks ago.
"We walked past some (YPG) positions in the east yesterday that were
held by IS only two days ago," Abdulrahman Gok told Reuters by
telephone.
"Officials here say the air strikes are sufficient but ground action
is needed to wipe out IS. YPG is perfectly capable of doing that but
more weapons are needed."
SAFE ZONE
Turkey has so far failed to bow to mounting pressure to aid Kobani,
either by ordering in Turkish tanks and troops that line the border,
or permitting weapons and ammunition to reach the town.
Ankara is reluctant to be sucked into the morass of the Syrian
conflict without clear guarantees from western allies that more will
be done to help repatriate 1.6 million people who have fled across
the border from Syria.
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Officials are also wary of arming Kobani's Kurdish defenders, who
have strong links with the militant Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK),
which has staged a decades long insurgency against the Turkish
government in the country's predominantly Kurdish southeast.
Turkish officials are increasingly frustrated with criticism of
their actions towards Kobani, saying they have carried the
humanitarian burden from the fighting, which saw 200,000 people
cross the border from the Kobani area.
They also say air strikes fail to offer a comprehensive strategy
against Islamic State, which has flourished in the power vacuum
created by Syria's bitter war. Ankara blames Syrian President Bashar
al-Assad for this, and wants him toppled from power, something
western allies currently refuse to countenance.
Speaking on Wednesday, Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said
that Kurdish fighters who had fled into Turkey had been invited to
return to Kobani to defend it, but had declined the offer.
He also spelled out details for so-called "secure zones" that Turkey
wants to see set up in Syria close to its border, so that refugees
can begin to return.
Zones should be created near the city of Aleppo, which has seen some
of the fiercest fighting of recent months. Others would be set up
near the Turkish border in Idlib province, Hassaka, Jarablous and
Kobani, Davutoglu said during a television interview.
To boost legitimacy, the U.N. should enforce the zones, Davutoglu
said, but failing that, the international coalition could provide
the air cover needed.
"Turkey could provide all the help necessary if such protection
zones are created. But when such protection zones do not exist, to
ask Turkey to intervene on its own is to ask Turkey to shoulder this
risk on its own."
Turkish officials are optimistic they can convince coalition
partners to meet some of their demands, at which point Ankara would
play a more active role, although it is unclear how long
negotiations might take.
U.S. officials have said creating a safe zone is not a priority and
NATO said last week it was not yet discussing such a move.
(Additional reporting Seda Sezer and Dasha Afansieva in Istanbul and
Oliver Holmes in Beirut; Writing by Jonny Hogg; Editing by Giles
Elgood)
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