MURSITPINAR, Turkey—The US-led coalition arrayed against Islamic State (IS) fighters conducted its most extensive air assault to date on Tuesday against the extremists besieging a northern Syrian city, which Turkey’s president described as being on the verge of collapse.
“Kobani is about to fall,” President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said as he sought to counter worldwide criticism of Turkey, the easternmost bastion of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (Nato) alliance, for failing to act to save it.
Kobani, a largely ethnic Kurdish city just south of the Turkish border, has emerged as a global symbol of resistance to the militant group IS, whose forces have overrun large tracts of Syria and northern Iraq.
The Islamist fighters have mounted a three-pronged attack from the west, east and south against Kobani, also known as Ayn al-Arab.
Seizing Kobani would be a major achievement for IS, opening another supply and smuggling corridor to the Turkish border from the group’s de facto capital, Raqqah, 75 miles to the southeast.
Taking the Kurdish stronghold despite the US-led bombing campaign would also be a huge propaganda coup.
For the Kurds, the loss of Kobani would be catastrophic, a death knell for one of the three semiautonomous Kurdish zones that have emerged in northern Syria since government forces left the area more than two years ago.
Kurds have long been frustrated in their quest for independence for their homeland, which stretches over portions of Turkey, Syria and Iraq.
Outgunned but resolute Kurdish militiamen have so far held off the militants.
Much of greater Kobani’s population of about 400,000 has fled the area, most to nearby Turkey.
“Kobani will not fall,” vowed Ismat Sheik, a Kurdish political representative reached Tuesday by cell phone in the besieged city. “We will resist…. We will not leave Kobani and will not give up.”
The US-led coalition carried out five air strikes overnight in the area, destroying several IS vehicles and a tank and killing combatants, the Pentagon said.
Towers of smoke and debris could be seen rising above the outskirts of Kobani in the apparent aftermath of the coalition bombardment.
The air attacks were the most effective to date, according to Kurdish officials, who have previously said they were too limited and off-target. The Kurds are digging in for street battles in urban terrain that is familiar to them.
“Today they struck very well and we thank them,” said Sheik, who said at least five militant pickup trucks with mounted machine guns were destroyed. “Of course, it’s still not enough.”
Los Angeles Times/MCT
Image credits: AP/Emrah Gurel