Iran Ready to Help Kobani in Fight against ISIL

TEHRAN (ST)- Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Marziyeh Afkham said Tehran is ready to help the Syrian government in pushing back ISIL’s wild attack on the Kurdish town of Kobani (also known by the Arab population as Ayn al-Arab) in the Northern parts of the country, FNA reported.

“Kobani is part of Syria’s sovereignty and territorial integrity and if the Syrian government makes a demand, we will be ready to provide any assistance it wants,” Afkham said in Tehran on Wednesday.

She voiced concern about the conditions of the people residing in Kobani after the terrorist attacks, and said the Islamic Republic is making coordination to send humanitarian, health and medical aids to the people in the war-hit Syrian city.

Afkham, meantime, said that the Syrian government has not yet asked Iran for sending aids.

She also blasted the international community for ignoring the situation of the people in Kobani, and said the actions and the policy taken by the US-led anti-ISIL coalition have rather encouraged the terrorist group to take any action that it desires.

Last night, Afkham warned of a pending human catastrophe in the Syrian-Kurdish town of Kobani which has been under attack by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) terrorist group in the last few weeks.

Afkham warned on Tuesday that the dire situation of the people in Kobani can lead to a human catastrophe in the city, and called on different countries to support the Syrian government and people with their fight against the terrorists and send humanitarian aids to the residents of Kobani.

Reports said on Wednesday that the Kurdish fighters in Syria’s border town of Kobani are getting the upper hand as urban warfare rages on between them and the ISIL Takfiri terrorists.

The Kurdish fighters, who know the battle field in the area much better than the Takfiris, have driven the militants out of several areas in the Southern part of the strategic town.

Mustafa Ebdi, a Kurdish journalist and activist from Kobani, stated in a message posted on Facebook that the streets of the Maqtala neighborhood in Southeastern Kobani are full of the bodies of ISIL terrorists.

The Kurdish journalist, however, alarmed that the “humanitarian situation is difficult and people need food and water”.

Meanwhile, Kurdish officials say airstrikes carried out by the US-led coalition against ISIL positions in Syria are not working.

“There’s a valley to the Southwest of Kobani that had 2,000 ISIL vehicles in it for 11 days, yet the Americans have never targeted them. It’s as if they only want to scare them or do a little damage,” said Ahmed Shekho, the head of the Syrian Kurdish students union.

“Now that ISIL are in the Eastern side of the town, a street war has started. It is like gang warfare,” Shekho stated, adding that the fighters know every street.

“ISIL are better armed but when it comes to street fighting, maybe the situation could be different.”

The intense fighting for the strategic town has forced nearly 200,000 people to take refuge in Turkey.

M. Wassouf