ISIS News Update: Kobane Could Fall To Islamic State, Ground Troops Needed At Border Town, Says Turkish President Erdogan
Kobane, the Syrian border town under siege by the so-called Islamic State, or ISIS, could fall, said Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the Associated Press reports. Overnight fighting saw the Sunni militant group take key strategic positions in the town also known as Kobani.
"The terror will not be over ... unless we cooperate for a ground operation. Months have passed, but no results have been achieved," Erdoğan said in a televised speech from Gaziantep, Agence France-Presse reports. Kurdish forces had pushed ISIS back in certain parts of Kobane, but the most recent fighting saw ISIS fighters advancing into the southwest part of the town, Reuters reported.
"There were clashes overnight. Not heavy, but ISIS is going forward from the southwest. They have crossed into Kobani and control some buildings in the city there," said Rami Abdulrahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told CNN that humanitarian efforts should be the first priority and the country is willing to participate in the U.S.-led coalition against ISIS if there is a "clear strategy." Davutoglu said more than 180,000 refugees from Kobane have fled into Turkey in the past three days.
"We will do everything possible to help people of Kobani because they are our brothers and sisters. We don't see them as Kurds or Turkmen or Arabs. If there is a need of intervention to Kobani, we are telling that there is a need of intervention to all Syria, all of our border," Davutoglu said.
© Copyright IBTimes 2024. All rights reserved.