Kurds flee as US airstrikes continue
0 Comment(s)
Print
E-mail Shanghai Daily via agencies, September 25, 2014
American warplanes pounded Islamic State positions in Syria for a second day Wednesday at a strategic post on the Iraqi border, but the campaign did nothing to halt the fighters’ advance on a Kurdish town where refugees are fleeing.
|
|
|
This US Air Forces Central Command photo released by the Defense Video & Imagery Distribution System (DVIDS) shows a formation of US Navy F-18E Super Hornets in flight after receiving fuel from a KC-135 Stratotanker over northern Iraq, on September 23, 2014. These aircraft were part of a large coalition strike package that was the first to strike ISIL targets in Syria. [Xinhua photo] |
Syrian Kurds said Islamic State responded to attacks by the United States by sending more tanks and fighters into an assault near the Turkish border in the north, where nearly 140,000 civilians have fled in recent days in the fastest exodus yet.
The advance on the town of Kobani is a reminder of the difficulty Washington is likely to face in defeating fighters in Syria, where it lacks strong military allies on the ground.
Fighting between militants and Kurds could be seen from across the border in Turkey, where the sounds of artillery and gunfire echoed around the hills.
Washington and its Arab allies killed scores of Islamic State fighters in the first 24 hours of airstrikes, two weeks after President Barack Obama pledged to hit the group on both sides of the Iraq-Syria border.
The opening strikes suggest one US aim is to hamper Islamic State’s ability to operate across the Iraqi-Syrian frontier. Yesterday, US-led forces hit at least 13 targets in and around Albu Kamal, one of the main border crossings between Iraq and Syria, after striking 22 targets there on Tuesday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
The US military confirmed it had struck inside Syria northwest of al Qaim, the Iraqi town at the Albu Kamal border crossing. It also struck inside Iraq west of Baghdad and near the Iraqi Kurdish capital Erbil yesterday.
Perched on the main Euphrates River valley highway, Albu Kamal controls the route from Islamic State’s de facto capital Raqqa in Syria to the frontlines in western Iraq and down the Euphrates to the outskirts of Baghdad.
Go to Forum >>0 Comment(s)