MURSITPINAR: US-led air strikes in Syria were reported yesterday to have killed more than 500 jihadists in a month, as Kurdish fighters prepared to reinforce the embattled border town of Kobane.
The battle for Kobane has become crucial for both the Islamic State (IS) group and its opponents, with a senior US official saying the Kurds there were inflicting heavy losses on the jihadists. IS was described as the world’s wealthiest “terror” group, earning $1 million a day from oil sales alone.
The Kurds in Kobane have been holding out against it for more than a month, buoyed by a promise of Iraqi Kurd reinforcements and by US air drops of weapons.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said yesterday that 200 Iraqi Kurd peshmerga fighters would travel through his country to join the battle in Kobane, where IS has an estimated 1,000 militants.
The US and its Arab allies have also been stepping up air strikes against IS in Syria. Witneses across the frontier captured on film the moment another one apparently hit an IS position atop a hill west of Kobane. A huge fireball dwarfed the few militiamen who had been seen manning the post under the jihadist group’s black flag before all but one of them disappeared.
The aerial campaign has killed 553 people since its launch, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, including 464 IS fighters and 57 militants from the Al Qaeda affiliated Al Nusra Front.
Thirty-two civilians have also been killed, including six children and five women, said the Britain-based Observatory, which relies on a wide network of sources inside Syria. The “vast majority” of jihadists killed were foreigners.
After first focussing on Iraq, the coalition has dramatically expanded its strikes in Syria recently, including in Kobane. The US military said in its latest update that fresh raids near the town destroyed IS fighting positions, a vehicle and a command and control centre.
In Iraq, air strikes hit IS targets including fighting positions, a vehicle and a training centre. David Cohen, the US undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence who has been leading the fight against IS on the financial front, said that its “primary funding tactics enable it today to generate tens of millions of dollars per month”.
On the ground, the jihadists made fresh advances in and around Kobane, reportedly seizing territory in the town centre and to its north. IS had also taken control of a string of villages west of Kobane, said the Observatory. AFP
