CNN: ISIS pushed back in Kobani
Στον επικαιροποιημένο χάρτη των μαχών στην
Κομπάνι φαίνεται ξεκάθαρα ότι οι
Κούρδοι μαχητές έχουν καταφέρει να κερδίσουν αρκετά εδάφη ωστόσο η κατάσταση εξακολουθεί να είναι εξαιρετικά κρίσιμη.
Για αυτό αίσθηση προκαλεί η πληροφορία που μετέδωσαν δυτικά μέσα ενημέρωσης ότι οι τζιχαντιστές του
Ισλαμικού Κράτους υποχωρούν, καθώς δεν προκύπτει από πουθενά.
Και οι ίδιοι οι Κούρδοι μαχητές αναφέρουν ότι οι τζιχαντιστές έχουν
επικεντρώσει στο ανατολικό μέτωπο της πόλης, αφού προσπαθούν με νύχια
και με δόντια να καταλάβουν το μοναδικό φυλάκιο των συνόρων με την
Τουρκία που ελέγχουν οι Κούρδοι.
Αν το καταφέρουν αυτό τότε θα είναι θέμα χρόνου να πέσει η Κομπάνι.
tribune
U.S. airstrikes help push ISIS back in Kobani
By Susanna Capelouto, CNN
October 17, 2014 — Updated 1139 GMT (1939 HKT)
ISIS pushed back in Kobani
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- NEW: U.S. jets are increasing bombing of Kobani due to heavier ISIS presence
- NEW: Pentagon says that doesn’t mean U.S. strategy is shifting on the city’s value
- 14 U.S. airstrikes on ISIS positions in Kobani help Kurdish fighters turn the tide, activist says
- ISIS gaining ground in Iraq’s Anbar province, local official says
(CNN) — The increased number of U.S. airstrikes
against ISIS in the Syrian city of Kobani reflects more targets of
opportunity, not a change in the campaign against the vicious Islamist
group, a Pentagon spokesman said Thursday.
The strikes are helping Kurdish fighters on the ground push back ISIS militants in the Syrian town, according to sources there.
“There’s been no
strategic shift here, as far as I know, at least from the military
perspective, about Kobani or any other town,” Rear Adm. John Kirby said,
making a unique appearance at the State Department’s daily briefing.
In recent weeks,
administration and U.S. defense officials have said it wasn’t essential
to keep the city, not far from the border with Turkey, from becoming the
latest in Syria to fall into ISIS hands.
“We never said Kobani
didn’t matter,” Kirby said. “What makes Kobani matter for us from an
airstrike perspective is that (ISIS is) there, and that they want it.”
Kirby said the number of
airstrikes in Syria or Iraq depends on how “target rich” an area is. The
past few days around Kobani have seen more ISIS targets, he said. There
are more ISIS fights there with more force, Kirby said.
U.S. fighter jets conducted at least 14 raids near Kobani on Wednesday and Thursday, according to U.S. Central Command.
Initial reports show the
strikes hit 19 ISIS buildings and 10 other targets, including command
posts, sniper positions and a staging location, the U.S. military said.
According to CNN’s math, that makes 122 strikes on the city, most of any
town in what the military recently labeled Operation Inherent Resolve.
Street by street
The battle for Kobani
has become a street fight over control of hills and neighborhoods and
witnessed by TV cameras pointed there from Turkey.
These strikes on small
targets in Kobani, such as sniper positions, are “tactical” in nature —
without the widespread “strategic” affect against ISIS that U.S.
officials have said is the foundation for the U.S. operation in Syria, a
senior U.S. military official told CNN’s Barbara Starr.
“It’s not
‘whack-a-mole,’ ” Kirby said. “The idea isn’t to just put a warhead on a
forehead every single day. The idea is to try to get at their ability
to sustain themselves and to disrupt their strategy.”
One Kurdish fighter told
CNN Thursday that ISIS has been forced from many parts of the city, but
still controls some key buildings including the hospital and the
important Asayish building in the middle of Kobani, which served as
headquarters for the Kurdish People’s Protection Units, or YPG.
Dempsey: ‘I don’t see’ Baghdad falling
Obama: Campaign against ISIS ‘long term’
ISIS’ advance brings fear to Baghdad
Kurdish forces have
control of the southwest entrance of the city and have taken some
buildings back from ISIS fighters in one neighborhood, next to the
heavily contested eastern industrial area of the city.
The airstrikes over the
past few days have helped Kurdish YPG fighters turn into an offensive
rather than a defensive force, one activist said.
But, he adds, “there is still street fighting in the east and in the south” of Kobani.
“This is an infantry
battle now and traditional reconnaissance does not work,” said Anthony
Cordesman with the Center for Strategic and International Studies. It’s
hard to get correct information, making the results of the airstrikes
indecisive, he said.
A U.S. Defense officials
told CNN that good weather played a role in the Kobani airstrikes,
because the targets were readily located by overhead surveillance. In
Iraq on the other hand, bad weather has forced a slowdown in strikes,
the official said.
ISIS pushing ahead in Iraq?
Militants have tightened their grip over an area about 15 miles south of Fallujah, an Anbar province official said Thursday.
ISIS has brought many of
its fighters, armed with heavy weaponry and machinery, in order to
attack and control the town of Amiryat al-Falluja, the head of the
town’s council, Shaker Mahmoud, said Thusday.
Mahmoud urged the Iraqi government to send military reinforcements to support the security forces inside the town.
ISIS advances have
slowed and the group has changed formation, communication and tactics
making them “harder to hit,” Kirby said. He called for “strategic
patience” in measuring the success of the operation.
Militants continue to
surround a major airbase in the Iraq’s Anbar province and U.S. officials
say they’re continuing airstrikes there to help Iraqi forces.
“In Anbar province, our
hope is to stop or halt that tactical initiative and momentum that they
(ISIS) have,” Gen. John Allen, the special presidential envoy on ISIS,
said Wednesday. It is clear that ISIS “has made substantial gains in
Iraq,” he said.
A senior U.S. military
official told CNN the fight in Anbar is “very tough,” but “Iraqi forces
are holding their own in some places.” U.S. officials do not see the Ein
Al-Assad military base in Anbar on the verge of being overrun by ISIS,
the official said.
ISIS car bomb in Baghdad
At least five people
were killed and 15 were injured when two car bombs exploded in the
al-Hurriya Shiite neighborhood in Baghdad Thursday, according to police.
At least two people died when another car bomb exploded at a security
checkpoint near al-Talbiya Bridge in eastern Baghdad.
ISIS released a statement claiming responsibility for the bombings.
CNN’s Ingrid Formanek, Hamdi Alkhshali and Kareem Khadder contributed to this story
