War against Isis: PKK commander tasked with the defence of Syrian Kurds claims 'we will save Kobani'

[Jefferson23]

November 11, 2014

Patrick Cockburn ventures deep into the Kandil mountains for a rare audience with the Kurdish guerrilla leader - and hears his defiant message to the Islamists...



Kobani cannot now be captured by the fighters of Isis but a million people in another Kurdish enclave in Syria are facing a mounting threat of being massacred or forced to flee by advancing jihadis, according to the Kurdish guerrilla leader overseeing the defence of Syrian Kurds.

In an exclusive interview with The Independent in his headquarters in the Kandil mountains in Iraqi Kurdistan, Cemil Bayik, the top field commander of the PKK, the Kurdish guerrilla organisation in Turkey, and also of its Syrian affiliate, says: “Kobani will not fall. We are advancing on the eastern and southern fronts.”

He said that the Syrian Kurdish fighters had succeeded in “taking back the municipal building and Isis was forced to blow up a mosque it held”.

in full: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/war-against-isis-pkk-commander-tasked-with-the-defence-of-syrian-kurds-claims-we-will-save-kobani-9854818.html

[Jefferson23]

1. Isis: Iraqi army retakes control of oil refinery town as Kurds stand firm against overstretched

Isis: Iraqi army retakes control of oil refinery town as Kurds stand firm against overstretched Islamic State



Patrick Cockburn reports from Makhmour, the Iraqi town where the tide may finally be turning in the war against the self-styled Islamic State


Iraqi forces have recaptured the refinery town of Baiji and broken the siege of the giant oil refinery nearby, say officials in Baghdad – in the most important success for the Iraqi government since Isis seized a third of Iraq in June.

Isis fighters, after their spectacular victories in Iraq and Syria over the summer, are overstretched as they seek to extend or defend the vast territories they have seized. A Kurdish general, Najat Ali, commanding Peshmerga soldiers in the town of Makhmour, 50 miles north of Baiji, said yesterday that “Isis has big administrative problems in supplying food and ammunition to its forces in the front line”.

Makhmour, a Kurdish town of 12,000 people, lies just to the east of the Tigris River and was briefly captured by Isis, which calls itself Islamic State, in its offensive in August that led to the start of US air strikes. It too is back in Kurdish hands.

A shattered 120mm artillery piece, captured by Isis from the Iraqi army but later destroyed by US bombers, lies abandoned near the town’s main grain silo. Kurds were shocked and frightened at the time by the speed with which Isis columns defeated the Peshmerga in blitzkrieg attacks and came close to capturing the Kurdish capital Irbil, which is only 45 minutes’ drive from Mahkmour.
Read more: UN investigators accuse Isis of crimes against humanity

From the top of a mound defended by a machine-gun post on the outskirts of the town, the Peshmerga watch the Isis front line, which is in a treeline and an abandoned village in the middle distance.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/isis-the-kurds-strike-back--army-retakes-control-of-oil-refinery-town-as-kurds-stand-firm-against-overstretched-isis-9862538.html