Kurds foil jihadi attempt to cut off Kobane

America continues air support; UN calls for support of Baghdad govt; Turkey still reluctant to fight ISIS UN Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura warned earlier that about 12,000 civilians remained in and around Kobane and risked “massacre’ if the jihadis cut

Mursitpinar ( Turkey)/ United Nations/ Istanbul/ London, Oct. 18: Kurdish peshmerga forces in the Syrian town of Kobane repulsed a new attempt by ISIS to cut off the border with Turkey Saturday as troops battled the jihadis in neighbouring Iraq.

A Kurdish official reported five new US- led strikes around Kobane overnight as the coalition kept up its air support for the town’s defenders.

But the US military said that while it saw some “encouraging” signs, the strikes might not prevent Kobane’s fall and its priority remained the campaign against the ISIS in Iraq.

Heavy ISIS mortar fire hit the Syrian side of the border crossing with Turkey, which is the Kurdish fighters’ sole avenue for resupply and the only escape route for remaining civilians, Kurdish official Idris Nassen told AFP.

The jihadis launched a fierce attack from the east towards the border gate before being pushed back, he added.

ISIS suffered heavy losses in the fighting and was forced to send in reinforcements, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The jihadis lost 21 of their people to airstrikes and another 14 in ground fighting on Friday, the Britainbased monitoring group said. The Kurds lost three of their fighters.

An AFP correspondent on the Turkish side reported sporadic mortar fire very close to the border crossing on Saturday afternoon.

UN Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura warned earlier this month that about 12,000 civilians remained in and around Kobane and risked “massacre” if the jihadis cut off the border.

Overnight coalition airstrikes on ISIS targets elsewhere in Syria killed 10 civilians, the Observatory said.

Iraqi government troops are battling ISIS on two fronts — in the Anbar provincial capital of Ramadi, west of Baghdad, and near Tikrit, hometown of executed dictator Saddam Hussein.

Iraqi troops have been struggling to retake and hold ground, despite coalition air support.

The UN Security Council on Friday unanimously called for increased support for the Baghdad government in the face of the “vicious string of suicide, vehicle- borne and other attacks” in the capital.

Meanwhile, in Syria’s northern province of Aleppo, ISIS jihadis on Thursday executed a man they accused of filming their headquarters, and displayed his body on a cross, the Observatory said.

Also, Turkey is turning a deaf ear to insistent pres- sure to take a more proactive stance in the fight against ISIS, adding to existing strains with the West under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Western diplomats have repeatedly made clear they want to see the key Nato member play a key role in the coalition against the militants, who are battling for Kobane just a few kilometres from Turkey.

But even with the jihadis so close, Turkey is wary of giving in to Western pressure to allow coalition jets the use of its air bases, let alone deploy its own troops.

Turkish leaders meanwhile are increasingly bitter over being pressured to help save the single settlement of Kobane, when ISIS has already snared swathes of Iraq and Syria while the West did nothing.

“It’s not about Kobane,” Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu snapped angrily this week. “It’s all about putting pressure on Turkey through Kobane. But Turkey has no appetite for adventures.”

In London, five men have been charged in connection with an alleged ISIS plot to carry out a drive- by gun attack against Scotland Yard officers.

Four of the group are said to have sworn allegiance to ISIS and to have planned to use a moped to carry out the shooting on the streets of London.

They are accused of using Google Street View to conduct “hostile reconnaissance” of Shepherds Bush police station and White City Territorial Army barracks, both in west London, the Times reported.

It is also alleged that the group shared Instagram photographs of two metropolitan police officers and two police community support officers ( PCSOs).

Mark Dawson, for the prosecution, told the Westminster magistrates’ court that the alleged plot was “to shoot, to kill police officers or soldiers on the streets of London”. — AFP