Konflikten i Syrien

Sept. 29, 2014 –
In Syria, one airstrike near Dayr ar Zawr destroyed an ISIL armed vehicle, and another destroyed an ISIL anti-aircraft artillery transport vehicle. U.S. and partner nations conducted two airstrikes on an ISIL compound and an ISIL-held airfield in northwest Syria near Aleppo.
Two airstrikes were conducted on ISIL compounds near Raqqah, and two more struck an ISIL training camp and ISIL vehicles in a staging area next to an ISIL-held grain storage facility near Manbij that ISIL was using as a logistics hub and vehicle staging facility.

Turkish tanks took up position on a hill overlooking the besieged Syrian border town of Kobane on Sept. 29 after several shells hit Turkish territory as militants of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) fired on the town, a Reuters correspondent said.

At least 15 tanks were positioned, some with their guns pointed towards Syrian territory, near a Turkish military base just northwest of Kobane. Plumes of smoke rose up as shells hit both the eastern and western sides of the city.

More tanks and armoured vehicles moved towards the Syrian border after at least two shells hit Turkish territory on Sept. 29, without causing damage.

But a mortar shell that hit a house in a Turkish village on the Syrian border late Sept. 28 left three people wounded, the military said on its website. It said Turkey's armed forces responded in kind. The military said it had fired back following the incident.

Meanwhile, the Turkish Parliament is set to discuss joining anti-ISIL coalition. The government said Sept. 29 it was likely to submit motions to parliament within 24 hours requesting extended mandates for military action in Iraq and Syria, so Ankara can join the U.S.-led international coalition against ISIL militants.

"The motions have not yet been sent to parliament. They may come tomorrow," parliamentary speaker Cemil Çiçek was quoted as saying by NTV television. Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu has said the motions will be debated on Oct. 2.

Turkey refused to join a broad coalition led by the United States to defeat the jihadist fighters while dozens of its citizens including diplomats and children were being held by ISIL militants having been abducted from the Turkish consulate in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul.

After securing their freedom in a top-secret operation which reportedly resulted in the release of 50 ISIL fighters, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said Turkey's position had changed, signalling a more robust stance towards the group.

In a rare move, Turkey's top general, Necdet Özel, will speak to the cabinet on Sept. 30, to be followed by a security summit chaired by Erdoğan.

Turkey has so far accepted over 160,000 refugees who fled the ISIL assault near the town of Ain al-Arab, and has called for a safe zone and buffer zone to help civilians inside Syria.

Turkey has already taken in more than 1.5 million refugees who fled the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.

“Around sunset a convoy of about 30 IS vehicles left the area and drove towards the Syrian border,” said Haji Ibrahim, a veteran Yezidi Peshmerga.

ISIS fighters in Iraq and Syria had previously traveled in columns of vehicles with flags, Air Force Maj. Gen. Jeffrey Harrigian, Air Force assistant deputy chief of staff for operations, plans and requirements, told reporters at a briefing Monday.

"They are now dispersing themselves to allow themselves situations to be more survivable, if you will, which requires us to work harder to locate them, and then develop the situation to appropriately target them," Harrigian said.

However, Harrigian said that the air campaign has been decisive in key areas: preventing ISIS from massing forces on a large scale and limiting its freedom of movement, disrupting the group's ability to communicate with each other and command forces in battle, and working to impact ISIS's financing.

He said since Aug. 8, there have been more than 240 strikes in Iraq and Syria -- 74 percent of them by the Air Force in Iraq, and 50 percent of them in Syria.

The United States has likely spent between $780 million and $930 million in its military campaign against the Islamic State militant group so far, and it will likely cost between $200 million and $320 million per month going forward if conducted with about 2,000 U.S. service members on the ground, according to a report published Monday.

It has been reported that Ciwan Behcet, one of 3 people from Rojava who were caught by Turkish soldiers attempting to cross the border in the Şenyurt neighbourhood of the Kızıltepe district of Mardin province on Sunday, was beaten to death and his body thrown back over the border fence into Rojava.

HDP (Peoples' Democratic Party) Co-chair Selahattin Demirtaş has arrived in Suruç district of Urfa where a mass resistance by the Kurdish people is taking place since 15 September in protest against the intensified attacks of ISIS gangs in Kobanê, and the growing resistance of the YPG/YPJ (People's/Women's Protection Units) fighters and the people of West Kurdistan.

Further evidence of this distorted Western-centric focus is the way British and US leaders are suddenly tub-thumping that swift, strong action is needed against ISIS, while effectively ignoring that an anti-ISIS fight back has been going on for more than a year in places like Kobane, northern Syria, led by Kurdish troops. During all this time, as the Kurds led the resistance to ISIS, the Western powers looked the other way. Lesson number two: don't act like it was the West that originated the idea of action against ISIS and insinuate that the people of region haven't been resisting the so-called Islamic State.

The truth is that if the US and UK are serious about fighting ISIS they should start by aiding the people on the ground who know the region best, have local roots and who are already leading the fight against the jihadist menace - the peshmerga army of the Kurdish regional government in Iraq and guerrillas from the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) and allied movements in Syria. This aid could include training, weapons, military intelligence, food and medical equipment. With extra assistance and supplies, they could be a powerful, effective counter-force to ISIS. The aim would be to empower them to liberate themselves.

Belatedly, some western governments are offering to assist the Iraqi-based peshmerga but not the forces of the leftist PKK, which is still wrongly branded a terrorist organisation by the US and European Union. Yet it is the PKK fighters and their allies that are holding off ISIS in northern Syria. They are a key bulwark against the spread and triumph of the Islamic State - and deserve international recognition and support.