Kurdish fighters gird for battle as ISIS enters besieged Syrian city of Kobani

By Laura Smith-Spark, CNN
October 3, 2014 -- Updated 1129 GMT (1929 HKT)


(CNN)-- ISIS fighters have entered the besieged Syrian Kurdish city of Kobani, a Kurdish fighter said Friday, setting the stage for a vicious street-to-street battle in the shadow of Turkey's border.

Alan Minbic, a fighter with the Kurdish People's Protection Unit, or YPG, told CNN that ISIS now controls the southwest corner of the city, known in Arabic as Ayn al-Arab.

Thousands of civilians have fled the predominantly Kurdish city in northern Syria in recent days as ISIS forces have advanced apparently inexorably toward it.

The Sunni extremist group's entry into the city comes a day after Turkish lawmakers voted overwhelmingly to authorize military force against ISIS in Iraq and Syria.

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu vowed Friday to help the Kurdish fighters defend Kobani from ISIS.

"We wouldn't want Kobani to fall," he said. "We welcomed our brothers who came from Kobani. We'll do whatever we can to prevent this from happening."

For months, ISIS has been advancing, capturing portions of northern and eastern Syria and western and northern Iraq for what it says is its new Islamic state, or caliphate.

The fighting has only intensified in the region in recent days, with ISIS nearly surrounding Kobani, not far from Turkey's border. Remaining civilians were ordered Thursday to evacuate and headed to the border, as Kurdish fighters declared their readiness to take on the ISIS militants in street warfare.

Snipers take aim

YPG fighters are now using snipers in an effort to prevent the ISIS militants from advancing farther, Minbic said.

On the eastern edge of Kobani, city defenders destroyed an ISIS tank, Minbic said, but on the western side, ISIS now controls an area called Tal Shair, which includes an informal border crossing.

Mousa Al Ahmad, a Free Syrian Army fighter in Kobani, gave CNN the same information on the ISIS advance, in a separate phone conversation. He said there were about 300 FSA fighters battling alongside the YPG in the city.

If ISIS, also known as ISIL or "Islamic State," takes Kobani, it will control a complete swath of land from its self-declared capital of Raqqa, Syria, on the Euphrates River to the Turkish border, more than 100 kilometers (60 miles) away.

U.S. airstrikes have been directed against ISIS positions in the Kobani area this week. But U.S. Central Command said there were no further strikes in the area overnight into Friday.

Australia on Friday became the latest nation to join the U.S.-led coalition against ISIS in Iraq, as its Cabinet authorized airstrikes by Australian military jets and the use of its special forces.

Big shift for Turkey

The mood of Turkey's leaders changed in recent days, with ISIS on the nation's doorstep and tens of thousands of people fleeing across its border.

The Turkish Parliament voted 298-98 to not only to let the country's military leave its borders to go after ISIS and other terror groups, but also to allow foreign troops to launch operations from Turkey.

The authorization, which came as ISIS fighters laid siege to towns just south of the Turkish border, takes effect Saturday.

It is a big shift for Turkey, a NATO member, which until now offered only tacit support to the U.S.-led coalition of about 40 nations going after ISIS in Iraq and Syria in various capacities.

The Prime Minister submitted a motion declaring that Turkey was seriously threatened by the chaos in Syria and Iraq.

One Kurdish fighter, who gave only his first name, Botan, told CNN on Thursday that they were not afraid to die if necessary.

"We know what will happen if ISIS takes over our town and what they will do to us," he said. "Our fight is not just for the Kurds, it is a fight for all of humanity. When people are getting their heads chopped off and tossed aside like animals, it is a duty to fight."

Special forces

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott, speaking at a joint news conference with defense chiefs Friday, said ISIS had "effectively declared war on the world" and posed a threat to Australia and its people.

ISIS must be disrupted and degraded, he said, and "it is absolutely in Australia's national interests that this mission go ahead."

The Cabinet authorized the deployment of Australian special forces into Iraq to "advise and assist" Iraqi forces, Abbott said, subject to final legal approvals from Iraq. Australian aircraft began flying support missions over Iraq this week.

Abbott warned that the deployment to Iraq could be "quite lengthy," lasting months rather than weeks, but that it would be no longer than strictly necessary.

"Yes, it is a combat deployment, but it is an essentially humanitarian mission to protect the people of Iraq and ultimately the people of Australia from the murderous rage of the ISIL death cult," he said.
Abbott said Australia's special forces would support Iraqi forces, in a way similar to those sent by the United States.

"The Americans certainly have quite a substantial special forces component on the ground already," he said. "My understanding is that there are UK and Canadian special forces already inside Iraq. So we'll be operating on a much smaller scale but in an entirely comparable way to the United States special forces."

Australia has six Super Hornet strike fighters based in the United Arab Emirates, and Parliament has authorized the use of up to eight, said Air Chief Marshal Mark Binskin.

Australian authorities believe that there are at least 60 Australians fighting in the Middle East with terrorist groups, chiefly ISIS, and that at least 100 more support terrorist groups through funding and recruitment. Counterterrorism police have carried out raids in Australia in recent days.

CNN's Ingrid Formanek, Barbara Starr, Radina Gigova and Chelsea J. Carter contributed to this report.

translate :

Isis telah menembus kota kurdi di suriah yg terkepung, kobani, tentara kurdi berkata pada hari jumat, sedang mengatur pertahanan untuk peperangan jalanan yang brutal.

Ribuan penduduk melarikan diri dalam beberapa hari terakhir saat tentara isis terlihat maju merangsek untuk mencapai kota itu.

Isis mulai masuk ke dalam kota setelah turki menyetujui menggunakan kekuatan militer untuk melawan isis.

Perdana mentri turki bersumpah akan membantu milisi kurdi untuk mempertahankan kobani dari serangan isis.

“kita tidak akan membiarkan kobani jatuh” katanya. “kami menerima saudara kami dari kobani. Kami akan mengambil tindakan apa saja untuk mencegah masalah ini”.

YPG kurdi menggunakan sniper untuk menghambat isis dari jarak jauh.

Di timur kobani, isis sudah mengontrol area tersebut yaitu Tal Shair.

Ada 300 tentara syria yg berperang bersama YPG kurdi di dalam kota.

Jika isis dapat menguasai kobani, isis akan mengontrol penuh raqqa hingga perbatasan turki.

Jet amerika juga terlihat sedang menyerang langsung posisi isis di kobani minggu ini.

Australia juga mengirim jet tempur dan pasukan khusus untuk bergabung bersama amerika.