In an interview with Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic yesterday, a Kurdish intelligence official in the city of Kobani, located in Syria near the border with Turkey, expressed his fears if the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) succeeds in capturing the city.
I just got off the phone with a desperate-sounding Kurdish intelligence official, Rooz Bahjat, who said he fears that Kobani could fall to ISIS within the next 24 hours. If it does, he predicts that ISIS will murder thousands in the city, which is crammed with refugees—Kurdish, Turkmen, Christian, and Arab—from other parts of the Syrian charnel house. As many as 50,000 civilians remain in the town, Bahjat said.
“A terrible slaughter is coming. If they take the city, we should expect to have 5,000 dead within 24 or 36 hours,” he told me. “It will be worse than Sinjar,” the site of a recent ISIS massacre that helped prompt President Obama to fight ISIS.
Though yesterday it was reported that ISIS was close to capturing the city, The New York Times today reports that American and allied forces have started attacking ISIS positions near the city. The coalition attacks have helped the Kurdish forces inside Kobani.
Barwar Mohammad Ali, a coordinator with the Kurdish defenders inside Kobani, said street fighting continued Tuesday morning. While the new round of airstrikes appeared to make a difference, he said, they were still not enough to hold off a larger and better-armed Islamic State force.
Several airstrikes appeared to hit the southern and eastern outskirts of Kobani overnight and Tuesday morning, he said. “It is the first time that people have the impression that the airstrikes are effective,” he said, referring to Kurdish fighters on the front lines with whom he said he was in touch. “But they need more.”
Both reports noted that Turkish troops had amassed at the border but were doing nothing to help the Kurds in Kobani. The Times reported that the fighting has taken place “within full view of Turkish forces who have massed tanks with their cannons pointing toward Syria but who have not opened fire or otherwise intervened.” Turkey’s recent behavior, including a negotiating a release of hostages from ISIS has raised questions about its relationship with ISIS.
[Photo: Reuters / YouTube ]