Kids of Kobane stop ISIS

[AgingAmerican]

Very interesting video.

University students, boys and girls, defend Kobani. One thing I notice about the Kurdish fighters is that they laugh and smile a lot while fighting. Brave souls, they are.

[Hulk]

1. These are the resistance we should be supporting 110%

The dogs of Satan are on the move, and the cowards of Iraq drop their weapons and run like frightened children; afraid they may be hurt in a battle against the Islamic lunatics who are hell bent on rape and plunder as their reward for fighting and killing the weaker forces against them.
But the Peshmerga are ready to do battle and push these satanic forces of evil into the hell fires that are waiting for any that believe in an after life.
These are the fighters we should be supporting. They are starved for sufficient military weapons to stop the Black Plague racing across OUR vulnerable countryside we created in a once stable sovereign nation.
Where are we? Looking to support some bands of rebel fighters who would most likely join forces with ISIS next week and hand over the military weapons we provide them today. Do we always have to be so damned blind and ignorant in warfare?

[AgingAmerican]

2. The US is airdropping to Iraqi forces

...but none for the defenders of Kobani. It makes no sense.

[Eko]

6. Say what?

"dogs of Satan"? "satanic forces of evil into the hell fires that are waiting for any that believe in an after life"? "Black Plague"? I think you are being a bit hyperbolic there and the second one really makes no sense.

[freshwest]

3. We have not abandoned them but work within the constraints of international treaties.

US Continues Pounding ISIS Targets in Embattled Syrian Town of Kobani

Source: CBS News

MURSITPINAR, Turkey -- Bolstered by intensified U.S.-led coalition airstrikes targeting militants from the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), Kurdish militiamen fought pitched street battles Wednesday with the extremists in a Syrian Kurdish border town near Turkey, making small advances, activists and officials said.

Elsewhere in Syria, in a stark reminder of the country's wider civil war, a Syrian lawmaker was gunned down in the central province of Hama - the latest assassination to target a figure linked to President Bashar Assad's government.

In the border town of Kobani, members of the Kurdish People's Protection Units, or YPG, were making progress against Sunni militants, hours after the U.S.-led coalition stepped up airstrikes in and around the town, said Asya Abdullah, a Syrian Kurdish leader.

The U.S. Central Command said Wednesday that U.S. military forces conducted 18 airstrikes against ISIS targets near Kobani in the past 24 hours, destroying multiple fighting positions and striking 16 ISIS-occupied buildings. On Tuesday, the Pentagon had said that 21 airstrikes against ISIS targets near Kobani overnight Monday marked the largest number there in a 24-hour period since the air campaign in Syria began last month.

Read more:

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/u-s-continues-pounding-isis-targets-in-embattled-syrian-town-of-kobani/

And the Turks are still being worse than useless, and real assholes, besides.

There's this:

But in remarks underscoring the region's layered crises, Turkey's Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc mocked the Kurdish fighters defending Kobani, comparing their struggle against ISIS to the guerrilla war of the affiliated Kurdish PKK rebels, who have fought a three-decade insurgency in Turkey, largely in mountainous regions in Turkey's east.

"They are not able to put up a serious fight there," Arinc told reporters in the southeastern city of Adiyaman. "It is easy to fight on the mountain against the military, police, the teacher and the judge. It is easy to kidnap people but they are not able to fight in Kobani," he said. "I could say a lot more but let me leave it at that so that they are not embarrassed."

The harsh comments also reflected Turkey's delicate position on the fighting in Kobani. On Tuesday, Turkey launched airstrikes against Kurdish rebels inside its borders, defying please from the U.S. to instead focus on the IS.

And this:

Also Wednesday, Syria's Foreign Ministry dismissed Turkey's calls for a no-fly zone on the Syrian territories as a "flagrant violation" of the U.N. charter and international law.

"Syria categorically rejects the establishment of no-fly zones on any part of the Syrian territories under any pretext," the ministry said.

Turkey has said it won't join the fight against ISIS extremists in Syria unless the U.S.-led coalition also goes after the Assad's government, including establishing a no-fly zone and a buffer zone along the Turkish border.

From Comrade Grumpy's thread:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1014919122

rollin74's add to the thread:

sounds like YPG has been making real progress against ISIS the last few days. good news

21 air strikes yesterday alone have helped

ISIS has lost ground in Kobane and no longer advancing

https://twitter.com/RNB1212

https://twitter.com/Avashin

https://twitter.com/HaraldDoornbos

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1014919122#post1

Earlier news:

ISIS Beheads 3 Women In Syria, School Bombed

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/10/01/isis-beheads-women_n_5912790.html?icid=maing-grid7%7Cmain5%7Cdl1%7Csec3_lnk3%26pLid%3D539023

Meanwhile, the Observatory reported Wednesday that militants of the Islamic State group beheaded nine Kurdish fighters, including three women, captured in clashes near the Syria-Turkey border.

They were captured during the heavy fighting over the northern Syrian town of Kobani, also known as Ayn Arab, the Observatory said. The chief Kurdish group fighting in Syria, known as the YPG, advocates gender equality, and women fight alongside men.

Kurdish forces have been locked in fierce clashes with Islamic State militants in and around Kobani since the extremist group launched an assault in mid-September. The fighting over Kobani has created one of the single largest exoduses in Syria's civil war, with more than 160,000 people fleeing into Turkey, the U.N. humanitarian chief Valerie Amos said Tuesday.

From Rhinodawg's thread:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10025609305

Another thread about the commitments being made and the planes and strategy being used against ISIS in Kobani and region:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10025592378

We have been involved and the people of Kobani know it. We have other responsibilities in the region. The premier of Kobani tweeted yesterday:

[AgingAmerican]

4. I still wish we would help them with airdrops

Thanks for your awesome reply!

[freshwest]

5. We did airdrops at Mt. Sinjar. Beware, it's a BOG link with videos and more links:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/110224888

Other threads I've posted on about that mission, had people angry that US air power was used to stop attacks on those trying to leave the mountain. The caravans removing them to safety were targeted. So American aircraft under the leadership of Kurdish troops, bombed the ISIS who pursued them.

This has been called a trick, not real, or of no importance. The UN confirmed what they were running from, 5K men slaughtered for being the wrong religion and 7K women and girls taken into the sex trade as spoils or war. Then raped to reproduce another generation for ISIS. That is why this is going to last for generations, and it's not coming from us.

Obama knew this when he spoke in videos posted, said it was from a time in history mankind should not repeat. This is real stuff that people in our time don't want to believe can possibly exist. The faces of the people on the ground and while in the helicopter in the videos on that link are not those of actors.

They are stunned by what they have witnessed. The Middle East has at times been more tolerant, but it has gone in cycles, from one caliphate to another, just as Western societies have done.

And their wars are not just from the influence of the West or the USA. The ideal that we could possibly be the sole cause of all that is going on in that region or the world, of societies who were formed by empires many centuries before we existed, is near laughable as it is the new 'American Exceptionalism' in that we are all powerful.

Coming from another side but still acting as if we rule the planet. We never did, to say we did and are the purveyors and source of all the evil in the world, is in the long run, another verse of 'USA! USA! USA!' but claiming it's different, IMO.

Thank you for your kind reply in response to mine, too, AgingAmerican.

[JDPriestly]

8. Yes. The underlying strife was there long before we entered the picture.

[Hulk]

9. Right. W and his evil step-sister just opened the can of worms and left....

This is what happens when "evil dictators" are overthrown without giving any thought to the consequences. This ALL belongs to Cheney and the Halliburton connection legacy. May they rot in hell, and soon.

[AtomicDryad]

12. BushCo(tm) is partially responsible, yes. But...

...as far as Syria at least, Turkish sectarian imperialism has played a big role in corrupting and balkanizing the revolution.

[JDPriestly]

7. Where did this video come from? Who or what produced it?

The music seems rather strange. I think it is the music from the movie Exodus.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exodus_%281960_film%29

[Scootaloo]

10. That's exctly what the music is.

Specifically the piece is "This Land is Mine," recently made re-famous by Nina Payley's animated video of the same name:

[JDPriestly]

11. I wonder what the origin of the video is. Seems odd to me.

Just very odd. The music may have been added by someone who didn't think that the Kurds might like to be associated closely with the Exodus music.

As you probably know, I want peace in the Middle East. But I am wondering who is sponsoring this film and just how authentic and accurate it is. The music just does not fit with Kurdish nationalism in my understanding. I could be quite wrong about this.