Islamic State fighters pushing into northern Syria spurred tens of thousands of Syrian Kurds to flee to the Turkish border as one of their last strongholds risks falling into the hands of the militants.
About 70,000 people have crossed into Turkey in the past 24 hours as fighting raged near the town of Kobani, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said in a statement. Hundreds of thousands may follow, it warned.
The mass exodus is the latest evidence of the trauma that has gripped Syria and Iraq as the jihadist group rampages through the area. It may also increase pressure on the U.S. and its allies to mount airstrikes in Syria to stop the group, whose army has captured Mosul, Iraq’s biggest northern city, and released videos of its hostages and their beheadings.
“Turkish government authorities and UNHCR are preparing for the possibility of hundreds of thousands more refugees arriving over the coming days,” the UN agency said.
Islamic State militants have seized scores of villages around Kobani, a mainly Kurdish town that’s also known as Ayn al-Arab, according to the U.K.-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The advance followed fighting between Islamic State and Syrian Kurdish groups known as the People’s Protection Units.
Massoud Barzani, president of the Kurdish region of northern Iraq, called on the region’s groups to defend the Syrian Kurds. Barzani also said the international community should “take every measure as soon as possible,” according to a statement on his website.
Before the Islamic State onslaught, Kobani had been spared the worst of Syria’s 3 1/2-year civil war. The Syrian Kurds are the latest group to be targeted by the al-Qaeda breakaway militants, who have also driven Iraqi Christians and Yezidi communities from their homes.
The government is accelerating the construction of two camps, with the help of UNHCR, to receive refugees not hosted by local communities.
Battles broke out overnight between Kurdish fighters and the militant group in the northeastern Al-Hasaka province, the Syrian Observatory, which has documented the country’s civil war, said today.
Control of the Kurdish areas would cement Islamic State’s hold in northeastern Syria after the group expelled government forces from al-Raqqa province.
The group declared a so-called Islamic caliphate after capturing Mosul and other towns in June.
Turkey said yesterday that the Islamic State freed 46 citizens and three Iraqis taken hostage in Mosul in June. The hostages, including Consul General Ozturk Yilmaz, arrived in Ankara by plane yesterday after being handed to Turkish agents without a fight. Turkey didn’t pay a ransom to secure their release, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said today.
“Accusations of bargaining are misplaced if it means money changing hands,” he said before heading to New York for the UN’s General Assembly. “There was of course political and diplomatic bargaining to rescue hostages.”
To contact the reporter on this story: Alaa Shahine in Dubai at asalha@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Alaa Shahine at asalha@bloomberg.net Andrew J. Barden, Jennifer Joan Lee
No comments:
Post a Comment