21 airstrikes slow IS progress in Kobani; Turkey takes surprising action

U.S.-led aircraft hammered Islamic State jihadists with 21 bombing raids near Kobani on Monday and Tuesday amid signs the strikes had “slowed” the group’s advance on the Syrian border town, the American military said. However, in a sign of further turbulence for the U.S. led-coalition, Turkish warplanes struck suspected Kurdish rebel positions in southeastern Turkey, media reports said Tuesday. In one of the heaviest bombardments so far against Sunni jihadists encircling Kobani, close to Turkey’s border, coalition air strikes “destroyed” two IS staging locations, a building, a truck, two vehicles, three compounds and damaged several other targets, it said.

…The security situation on the ground … remains fluid, with ISIL attempting to gain territory and Kurdish militia continuing to hold out.

US Central Command statement

The air strikes are designed to “interdict” IS reinforcements and resupply efforts as well as prevent the group from “massing combat power” against the Kurdish-held parts of Kobane, it said. The Turkish raids inside its own borders were the first major airstrikes against the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, since peace talks began two years ago to end a 30-year insurgency in Turkey. The action added to tensions between the key U.S. coalition partner and the PKK, a militant group listed as a terrorist organization by the U.S. that is also among the fiercest opponents of the Islamic State group.

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