Kurds say air strikes push Islamic State back from Kobani

"U.S.-led air strikes on Wednesday pushed Islamic State fighters back to the edges of the Syrian Kurdish border town of Kobani, which they had appeared set to seize after a three-week assault, Kurdish officials in the town said.

The town has become the focus of international attention since the Islamists' advance drove 180,000 of the area's mostly Kurdish inhabitants to flee into adjoining Turkey, which has infuriated its own restive Kurdish minority by refusing to intervene."

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/kurd...ar-BB88zxx

Sounds as if something may be going right finally.

Wow. The article I read yesterday made it seem like Kobani was doomed to be under ISIS. A big win for the west if this holds.

I was pretty well shocked after hearing all the doom and gloom about it yesterday also.

Funny thing was the article I read yesterday had the Obama administration saying these air-strikes were not designed to "move ISIS back from their territorial assaults".

If your support vehicles, artillery and other components outside the city are being destroyed, you have
committed atrocities in part of the city you have taken over, are right next to the Turkish border and
see their tanks massing....you might decide you do not want to get trapped and beheaded yourself.

(10-08-2014 11:17 AM)All Dukes_All Day Wrote:  Wow. The article I read yesterday made it seem like Kobani was doomed to be under ISIS. A big win for the west if this holds.

Yeah, I heard early this morning that Kobani was set to fall at anytime to ISIS. I should know better than to watch the news.

Isn't it strange that bad news is taken as gospel and good news is questioned?

Posted from my mobile device using the CSNbbs App

(10-08-2014 06:58 PM)Fitbud Wrote:  Isn't it strange that bad news is taken as gospel and good news is questioned?

Just like always, by one team or the other, whoever is out of power.

It appears this push back was just a lull

New ISIS Push

Dang, had hopes.

From my emai inbox, with the following teaser, comes this article from Foreign Policy mag...

Quote:
THE KURDISTAN CABLES: Contributor Jake Hess uncovers previously classified State Department documents that show how the U.S. tried to engage and undermine the Kurdish fighters protecting Kobani. An FP exclusive: Read more

Washington's Secret Back-Channel Talks With Syria's Kurdish 'Terrorists'

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/20...s10%2F07RS Wrote:Every day, the jihadists of the Islamic State (IS) advance closer to Kobani, a predominantly Kurdish town in northern Syria, close to the Turkish border. As the Islamic State rains down mortars on the town, the vastly outgunned People's Protection Units (YPG), a Kurdish militia, are attempting to resist the weeks-long assault. While Turkish troops watch from across the border and the U.S.-led air campaign continues, none of the powerful forces in the region have intervened decisively -- leaving the YPG to face the jihadist advance on its own.

The United States has rejected formal relations with the Democratic Union Party (PYD), the party that is essentially the political wing of the YPG. The PYD, which has ruled Kobani and other Kurdish enclaves inside Syria since President Bashar al-Assad's forces withdrew in July 2012, is affiliated with the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), a militant organization that has fought Turkey since 1984 -- and has consequently been listed as a terrorist organization by both Turkey and the United States. But interviews with American and Kurdish diplomats show that Washington opened indirect talks with the PYD years ago, even as it tried to empower the group's Kurdish rivals and reconcile them with the Free Syrian Army (FSA).

So, in essence, Obama with big fanfare announced that he was using a strategy that is proven to do no more than diminish a terrorist organization's influence in a region to "destroy ISIS". i.e. select a strategy out of the gate that is incapable of accomplishing your stated goal. One of the keys to that strategy is using local militias to push back ISIS. Now comes the political decision to undermine that strategy because of delicate sensibilities about who the local militia is.

Obama was said to have called Turkish (Islamist) Prime Minister Erdogan more than any other foreign leader by a longshot during the first few years of his administration. That alliance has been completely fruitless, and we've apparently deferred to the Turks about whether to offer limited support to the Kurds or allow this city so close to Turkey's border rather than to see it fall.

ISIS wouldn't be dumb enough to attack Turkey, would they? Assuming they took Kobani.

(10-09-2014 03:51 PM)NIU007 Wrote:  ISIS wouldn't be dumb enough to attack Turkey, would they? Assuming they took Kobani.

The answer is probably yes. Yes, they are.

I wonder if that's what Turkey is counting on, as an attack may trigger mandatory NATO assistance. And, that may be what ISIS is counting on as well.

Turkey wants Assad gone, so they have a larger agenda in Syria than protecting Kurds.

(10-09-2014 06:39 PM)I45owl Wrote:  

(10-09-2014 03:51 PM)NIU007 Wrote:  ISIS wouldn't be dumb enough to attack Turkey, would they? Assuming they took Kobani.

The answer is probably yes. Yes, they are.

I wonder if that's what Turkey is counting on, as an attack may trigger mandatory NATO assistance. And, that may be what ISIS is counting on as well.

Turkey wants Assad gone, so they have a larger agenda in Syria than protecting Kurds.

If you read the ISIS propaganda they want to battle "Rome" in a conflict before Mohammad comes back...blah blah

Sounds as if they are on a crusade themselves.

(10-09-2014 06:39 PM)I45owl Wrote:  

(10-09-2014 03:51 PM)NIU007 Wrote:  ISIS wouldn't be dumb enough to attack Turkey, would they? Assuming they took Kobani.

The answer is probably yes. Yes, they are.

I wonder if that's what Turkey is counting on, as an attack may trigger mandatory NATO assistance. And, that may be what ISIS is counting on as well.

Turkey wants Assad gone, so they have a larger agenda in Syria than protecting Kurds.

Welcome back Ottoman Empire?

(10-09-2014 06:39 PM)I45owl Wrote:  

(10-09-2014 03:51 PM)NIU007 Wrote:  ISIS wouldn't be dumb enough to attack Turkey, would they? Assuming they took Kobani.

The answer is probably yes. Yes, they are.

I wonder if that's what Turkey is counting on, as an attack may trigger mandatory NATO assistance. And, that may be what ISIS is counting on as well.

Turkey wants Assad gone, so they have a larger agenda in Syria than protecting Kurds.

They want Assad gone but they aren't exactly into protecting Kurds. The Turks have been trying to wipe out the Kurds since the end of WWI, when Turkey was effectively created as a political entity. They see the Syrian and Iraqui Kurds as potential sponsors of Turkish Kurdish terrorism. They even tried genocide.

(10-09-2014 03:51 PM)NIU007 Wrote:  ISIS wouldn't be dumb enough to attack Turkey, would they? Assuming they took Kobani.

I don't think so given Turkey won't play around. Plus, Turkey is part of NATO which would open you a whole other can of whoop ass on ISIS. Having said that, ISIS is bat sh!t crazy so you never know what it might do.

(10-10-2014 07:55 AM)QuestionSocratic Wrote:  

(10-09-2014 06:39 PM)I45owl Wrote:  

(10-09-2014 03:51 PM)NIU007 Wrote:  ISIS wouldn't be dumb enough to attack Turkey, would they? Assuming they took Kobani.

The answer is probably yes. Yes, they are.

I wonder if that's what Turkey is counting on, as an attack may trigger mandatory NATO assistance. And, that may be what ISIS is counting on as well.

Turkey wants Assad gone, so they have a larger agenda in Syria than protecting Kurds.

They want Assad gone but they aren't exactly into protecting Kurds. The Turks have been trying to wipe out the Kurds since the end of WWI, when Turkey was effectively created as a political entity. They see the Syrian and Iraqui Kurds as potential sponsors of Turkish Kurdish terrorism. They even tried genocide.

I was lazy when I wrote that sentence, and its meaning suffered. The US (certainly not Turkey) has an agenda of saving the Kurds.

(10-10-2014 07:55 AM)QuestionSocratic Wrote:  

(10-09-2014 06:39 PM)I45owl Wrote:  

(10-09-2014 03:51 PM)NIU007 Wrote:  ISIS wouldn't be dumb enough to attack Turkey, would they? Assuming they took Kobani.

The answer is probably yes. Yes, they are.

I wonder if that's what Turkey is counting on, as an attack may trigger mandatory NATO assistance. And, that may be what ISIS is counting on as well.

Turkey wants Assad gone, so they have a larger agenda in Syria than protecting Kurds.

They want Assad gone but they aren't exactly into protecting Kurds. The Turks have been trying to wipe out the Kurds since the end of WWI, when Turkey was effectively created as a political entity. They see the Syrian and Iraqui Kurds as potential sponsors of Turkish Kurdish terrorism. They even tried genocide.

Wasn't the supposed genocide against the Armenians?

Anyway, regarding the Kurds, it was explained to me by a Turk that the Kurds wanting a state within modern Turkish borders is akin to Mexicans in the US wanting a Mexican state in the US, etc.