US forces unleash devastating firepower on ISIS terrorists
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Tags: Conflict, ISIS, John Kerry, Kurdish, radical Islamic group, Syria, terrorists, Turkey, War
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ISIS positions in and around Kobane felt the full force of American airpower last night, as sustained bombing raids resulted in a series of spectacular explosions in the besieged Syrian town.
The radical Islamic group has been dramatically pushed back from the town, having as recently as last week looked like it was about to drive out the last of the brave Kurdish fighters defending it.
As a fresh round of airstrikes rained down, the US also ran a series of airdrops for the Kurdish resistance, dispatching weapons and medical supplies.
Pyrotechnic tracer ammunition could be seen marking out ISIS targets in the town as the U.S. bombers flew overhead.
The move came as Turkey announced that it will finally open its border to allow hundreds of Kurdish fighters into Kobane to join the fight against ISIS.
Officials in the area hope that a final push will finally rid Kobane of ISIS, who were reported to have been reduced to just two strongholds at the weekend after being driven back by resurgent Kurdish fighters backed by US air-power.
US Secretary of State John Kerry declared the besieged Syrian settlement was at a ‘crisis moment’, with huge numbers of ISIS militants flooding into the line of Western fire.
During the evening of sustained airstrikes on ISIS targets, C-130 cargo planes made multiple drops of arms and medical equipment.
Mr Kerry said the decision to carry out the airdrops was made because it would be ‘irresponsible’ and ‘morally very difficult’ not to support the Kurdish fighters.
The move, on the same day as Turkey’s opening of its borders, raised the question of whether the weapon drops were strategically timed to arm the new influx of soldiers.
In a statement released last night, US Central Command said C-130 cargo planes made drops of arms and medical supplies which had been provided by Kurdish authorities in neighbouring Iraq.
The airdrops were intended to support continued resistance to ISIS as the Islamist extremist group attempts to gain control of Kobane.
Speaking in Indonesia today, Mr Kerry told reporters that the administration understood ally Turkey’s concerns about supplying the Kurds, who are linked to a Kurdish group that Ankara fiercely opposes.
But he said the situation is such in the besieged town of Kobane that the resupplies were deemed absolutely necessary in a ‘crisis moment’.
‘Let me say very respectfully to our allies the Turks that we understand fully the fundamentals of their opposition and ours to any kind of terrorist group and particularly obviously the challenges they face with respect to the PKK,’ Mr Kerry said.
‘But we have undertaken a coalition effort to degrade and destroy ISIL and ISIL is presenting itself in major numbers in this place called Kobane,’ he added using an alternative acronym for the terrorists.
According to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, the ‘large amount of weapons and ammunition’ airdropped by U.S. planes has reached the main Kurdish militia in Kobane. The Kurdish fighters in Kobane have been picking up and moving the weapons since they were airdropped around dawn, said the Observatory, which has a network of activists on the ground.In recent days, much of the coalition strikes have focused around Kobane, which Islamic State group militants have been trying to seize since mid-September.Turkey has so far provided sanctuary to an estimated 200,000 Syrians fleeing from Kobane and dozens of nearby villages that were captured by the IS group.
