US shipping weapons to Kurds to fight terror. Illustrative photo of US cargo plane. Photo Courtesy of U.S. Air Force photo/Master Sgt. John E. Lasky
The Kobani region in the Turkish-Syrian border has been a combat zone between Kurdish rebels and the terror group ISIS for a while, but the ISIS threat has now managed to cross the border into Turkey. The Telegraph reported that a rebel leader from the Kobani rebels was shot and temporarily kidnapped by ISIS forces inside Turkey before smugglers helping the terrorists abandoned the plot due to an increased Turkish military presence.
This comes as the US air dropped weapons to the rebels in Kobani, a region which is sensitive for Turkey because the Turks have a history of conflict with both sides fighting there now.
The Turks don’t trust the Kurdish rebels in Kobani, considering them to have ties to a Kurdish rebel group that has long fought Turkey, according to the Hurriyet Daily News. Because of this, Hurriyet reported, Turkey has previously refused to allow Kurdish forces to cross through Turkey to reinforce Kobani.
However, the Hurriyet Daily News reported that that stance has changed, as Kurdish forces have begun through Turkey to Kobani. This development comes as the US airdropped weapons to the Kurds in Kobani to help them fight ISIS.
A background briefing posted on the White House website from senior administration officials said that the weapons were donated by Kurds in Iraq and delivered by the US.
“We are still assessing the completion of the mission, but every indication that we have is that the vast majority of those bundles were successfully delivered to Kurdish forces,” said one official.
One of the senior officials in the briefing noted that not only does this airdrop help defend a Kurdish town from devastation at the hands of ISIS, but it also helps the overall battle with the terror group, which is also known as ISIL.
“What we’ve seen over the course of the last several days and weeks is ISIL surge its resources towards Kobani; masses of fighters and weapons and heavy weapons. That, frankly, has presented an opportunity,” said the official. “As ISIL has finite resources, we look for any opportunity to take out those resources and to degrade the organization.”
(By Joshua Spurlock, www.themideastupdate.com, October 20, 2014)