Warnings of massacre if Kobane falls to ISIS
by Rudaw reporters and James Reinl in New York
Civilians still stranded in Kobane face a massacre if Islamic State fighters overwhelm the besieged Syrian border town, its Kurdish administrators have warned.
“The ISIS attack is violent and devoid of any human values,” Xalid Berkal, a Kobane city council member, told Rudaw. “They are destroying whole neighborhoods with tanks and artillery.”
Berkal’s comments came shortly after a statement by the Kobane autonomous administration on Friday that ISIS had brought in tanks and heavy weapons from its Syrian headquarters at Raqq and from elsewhere.
They also echoed a warning by Staffan de Mistora, United Nations special envoy to Iraq, of an impending bloodbath in Kobane as ISIS advanced into the town.
“We have seen it, what ISIL is capable of doing when they take over a city. We know what they are capable of doing with their own victims, with women, children, minorities and hostages,” de Mistora said on Friday.
Berkal said that thousands of civilians are still stranded in Kobane and they fear a massacre at the hands of the Islamist militants if the town falls. Civilians remaining in the town are said to number around 13,000.
“The recent air strikes have had a big impact,” Berkal said, referring to an increase in US-led coalition strikes, “but they haven't stopped the IS invasion of Kobane.,”
On Friday, the Kobane administration urged the UN and coalition forces to establish a humani-tarian corridor to help the stranded residents reach safety across the border in Turkey.
President Massoud Barzani of the Kurdistan Regional Government has meanwhile ordered the opening of the region’s borders with Turkey to allow Kobane refugees to enter KRG territory, according to border officials.
Abdulwahab Muhammad Issa, security chief of the Ibrahim Khalil border crossing, told Rudaw that on Friday 500 refugees from Kobane had crossed the border into the Kurdistan Region from Turkey.
Rangin Sharo, Rudaw correspondent on the Syria-Turkey border, said parts of Kobane that are under control of the local Kurdish YPG fighters were quiet but heavy fighting was continuing in the west of the town.
Sharo said that the US air strikes were concentrated on the southern edges that connects Kobane to Aleppo road, which is used by IS militants for reinforcements.
The UN’s de Mistura said a breakthrough by ISIS, which has a track record of beheadings and crucifixions, meant those in Kobane “will be most likely massacred” if the town fell.
He said a such a bloodbath could be on the scale of the 1995 murder of 8,000 Muslims by Serbs in Srebrenica during the Bosnian conflict.
The UN’s refugee agency, UNHCR, says 172,000 Syrian Kurds have fled into Turkey since the IS assault on Kobane began. Many have headed on to the KRG region, often wading through rivers or paying smugglers $250 to cross the border at Silopi, the UN said.
One refugee told UNHCR of ISIS brutality, including a makeshift court set up at a school in Manbij, 66km southwest of Kobane, where some 400 prisoners were kept in four classrooms and beaten with leather belts five times daily.
“He witnessed seven men who had been sentenced the same day beheaded in front of him, and was due to be executed on 28 September,” the UN said.
“He and others managed to escape before then when the school was hit by bombs, and were horrified to see human heads mounted on the fence of the main park for others in the town to see.”
Civilians still stranded in Kobane face a massacre if Islamic State fighters overwhelm the besieged Syrian border town, its Kurdish administrators have warned.
“The ISIS attack is violent and devoid of any human values,” Xalid Berkal, a Kobane city council member, told Rudaw. “They are destroying whole neighborhoods with tanks and artillery.”
Berkal’s comments came shortly after a statement by the Kobane autonomous administration on Friday that ISIS had brought in tanks and heavy weapons from its Syrian headquarters at Raqq and from elsewhere.
They also echoed a warning by Staffan de Mistora, United Nations special envoy to Iraq, of an impending bloodbath in Kobane as ISIS advanced into the town.
“We have seen it, what ISIL is capable of doing when they take over a city. We know what they are capable of doing with their own victims, with women, children, minorities and hostages,” de Mistora said on Friday.
Berkal said that thousands of civilians are still stranded in Kobane and they fear a massacre at the hands of the Islamist militants if the town falls. Civilians remaining in the town are said to number around 13,000.
“The recent air strikes have had a big impact,” Berkal said, referring to an increase in US-led coalition strikes, “but they haven't stopped the IS invasion of Kobane.,”
On Friday, the Kobane administration urged the UN and coalition forces to establish a humani-tarian corridor to help the stranded residents reach safety across the border in Turkey.
President Massoud Barzani of the Kurdistan Regional Government has meanwhile ordered the opening of the region’s borders with Turkey to allow Kobane refugees to enter KRG territory, according to border officials.
Abdulwahab Muhammad Issa, security chief of the Ibrahim Khalil border crossing, told Rudaw that on Friday 500 refugees from Kobane had crossed the border into the Kurdistan Region from Turkey.
Rangin Sharo, Rudaw correspondent on the Syria-Turkey border, said parts of Kobane that are under control of the local Kurdish YPG fighters were quiet but heavy fighting was continuing in the west of the town.
Sharo said that the US air strikes were concentrated on the southern edges that connects Kobane to Aleppo road, which is used by IS militants for reinforcements.
The UN’s de Mistura said a breakthrough by ISIS, which has a track record of beheadings and crucifixions, meant those in Kobane “will be most likely massacred” if the town fell.
He said a such a bloodbath could be on the scale of the 1995 murder of 8,000 Muslims by Serbs in Srebrenica during the Bosnian conflict.
The UN’s refugee agency, UNHCR, says 172,000 Syrian Kurds have fled into Turkey since the IS assault on Kobane began. Many have headed on to the KRG region, often wading through rivers or paying smugglers $250 to cross the border at Silopi, the UN said.
One refugee told UNHCR of ISIS brutality, including a makeshift court set up at a school in Manbij, 66km southwest of Kobane, where some 400 prisoners were kept in four classrooms and beaten with leather belts five times daily.
“He witnessed seven men who had been sentenced the same day beheaded in front of him, and was due to be executed on 28 September,” the UN said.
“He and others managed to escape before then when the school was hit by bombs, and were horrified to see human heads mounted on the fence of the main park for others in the town to see.”