Reader’s links for Nov. 26 – 2015

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Thank you all for those that take the effort to assist this site in keeping the public informed. Below, typically people can find the latest enemy propaganda, news items of related materials from multiple countries and languages, op-eds from many excellent sites who write on our topics, geopolitics and immigration issues and so on.

About Eeyore

Canadian artist and counter-jihad and freedom of speech activist as well as devout Schrödinger's catholic

51 Replies to “Reader’s links for Nov. 26 – 2015”

  1. By Ray Takeyh & Reuel Marc Gerecht in Foreign Affrairs. They’re tops on Iran:

    Iran’s ISIS Trap
    How Tehran Uses the Terrorist Group to Get Ahead

    Iran is using Islamic State’s ascendance in the Middle East to consolidate its power. The country is now the key ally keeping Iraq’s Shiites and the Alawite Bashar al-Assad regime standing against well-armed and tenacious Sunni jihadists. In those battles, Tehran will likely do just enough to make sure the Sunnis don’t conquer the Shiite portions of Iraq and Assad’s enclave in Syria, but no more. Meanwhile, . . . Tehran will strengthen its own radical Shiite militias.

    The result could be a permanent destabilization of the Arab heartland. That would be a major victory for the Islamic Republic, which has seen its fortunes rise as Egypt and Turkey have become mired in crises and as Saudi Arabia, Iran’s one remaining serious Sunni rival, has gotten bogged down in a war in Yemen. . . .

    If Sunni radicals were to establish terrorist cells inside Iran’s minority Sunni communities, Tehran might want to throttle IS. Barring that eventuality, however, the clerical regime has no interest in diminishing the sectarian bloodbath that has allowed it more influence than at any time since the 1979 revolution. At best, anti-Americanism brought Tehran fellow-travelers; IS, however, has given the regime its best shot at an empire. For Iran’s ruling elite, Shiite-hating Sunnis have never looked so good.

    https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/syria/2015-11-15/irans-isis-trap

    • Mosaic summarizes: “The mullahs want a sectarian bloodbath.”
      Sounds good to me. Get me a seat in the balcony and a double salted popcorn.

  2. From Algemeiner, a Mosaic Pick:

    The headlines about absurd protests and pseudo-scandals on American campuses, and the often craven responses to them by college administrators, give the sense that academia is imploding. An adumbration of this latest crisis can be found in the end of Lawrence Summers’ tenure as president of Harvard in 2006. Summers found himself in hot water because he transgressed taboos about race and gender and also, writes Edward Alexander, about Israel:

    The Campus Uprisings, Israel, & the Downfall of Larry Summers
    In September 2002, [after Cornel West had accused him of racism, Summers] gave a speech to the Harvard community deploring the upsurge of anti-Semitism in many parts of the globe. He included synagogue bombings, physical assaults on Jews, desecration of Jewish holy places, and denial of the right of “the Jewish state to exist.”

    But his most immediate concern was that “at Harvard and . . . universities across the country” faculty-initiated petitions were calling “for the university to single out Israel among all nations as the lone country where it is inappropriate for any part of the university’s endowment to be invested.” This brought an avalanche of attacks on Summers from Israel-hating professors throughout this country and also the United Kingdom. . . .

    Once Summers had failed the litmus test of contemporary liberalism called “the Palestinian cause,” he was already in great danger. Questioning “gender” doctrine was his third strike, not his second; and calling the BDS movement what it most assuredly is—anti-Semitic—was the only “heresy” he did not recant. . . .

    Matthew Arnold was prescient when he wrote (about Oxford, England’s Harvard): “there are our young barbarians, all at play.” Summers would eventually find out that in this game, as in others, three strikes and you’re out.

    http://www.algemeiner.com/2015/11/22/the-campus-uprisings-israel-and-the-downfall-of-larry-summers/

  3. It’s Still World War IV
    And Islamic State fighters are still not Lord Voldemort’s Death Eaters. It’s time for the West to face some unpleasant truths.

    What will it take to fight this war? Begin with endurance: this war will probably go on for the rest of my life, and well into my children’s. That is an unpleasant reality, but there it is. Politicians will have to explain just how high the stakes are. The president may be right in the narrowest sense when he says that IS is not an “existential threat,” but its actions can derange our politics and cause chaos in parts of the world that we care a great deal about. If they ever acquire weapons of mass destruction (which they would like to do), they can and will kill thousands and tens of thousands rather than tens and hundreds.

    We will have to understand the ideology, or rather ideologies, of our enemies. . . . [In addition], we need to stop the circumlocutions. The “violent extremists” are in fact Islamists. We do not intend to “bring them to justice” or “take them off the battlefield,” but rather to capture or kill them. Although it is true one cannot kill one’s way out of an insurgency, we are going to have to a kill a great many people—thousands, not hundreds—before we break the back of IS and kindred movements. To that end we need a long-range plan not to “contain” but to crush them. It seems fairly evident that the [Obama] administration lacks such a plan, but if it exists it is plainly failing.

    It will be a long, bloody, and costly process; what is at stake is not simply our way of life in the sense of rock concerts and alcohol in restaurants, but the more fundamental rights of freedom of speech and religion, the equality of women, and, most essentially, the freedom from fear and freedom to think.

    http://www.the-american-interest.com/2015/11/19/its-still-world-war-iv/

  4. Powerful article by the ElderOfZyon himself!

    The death cult

    Today, we learned the details of the interrogation of an 11-year old boy who decided to stab Jews on a light rail train two weeks ago.
    […]
    In their interrogation, the two children said they carried out the attack as an act of revenge, without planning in advance and with no encouragement from any adults.
    […]
    Any person with a the slightest sense of morality would be aghast at the words from this child.

    I have yet to find a single article in Palestinian media that shows the slightest regret that they have raised a generation of children who literally want to die for a chance to kill a Jew.
    Think about that. Not a single Palestinian adult is willing to publicly express anything negative about children being brainwashed to die.
    […]
    Palestinianism is a death cult.

    If that statement is offensive to you, then kindly point me to the editorials or school curricula or cartoons or TV shows or music videos in Arabic that say that it is not a good idea to die while trying to murder Jews. I will happily retract and publish the articles that criticize a generation that glorifies death.

    But you won’t easily find them, because the such ideas cannot be safely said in Palestinian society.

    The next issue is, why are so many Westerners coddling this death cult instead of criticizing it?

    http://elderofziyon.blogspot.com/2015/11/the-death-cult.html#.Vla0WnjFugw

  5. Nigeria: Boko Haram Cannot Be Crushed by December (abcnews, Nov 26, 2015)
    http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/nigeria-boko-haram-crushed-december-35429693

    “Nigeria says it cannot meet President Muhammadu Buhari’s December deadline to crush Boko Haram’s Islamic uprising in the northeast.

    Air Commodore Yusuf Anas of the Center for Crisis Communication said on Thursday the deadline was “not tenable.”

    He warns Nigerians to not view December as a “sacrosanct date when all suicide bombings will end.”

    Forces from Nigeria and neighboring Chad earlier this year drove the extremists out of areas they had proclaimed an Islamic caliphate. Recently, the Nigerian Air Force and ground troops have reported destroying numerous Boko Haram camps and freeing more than 1,000 kidnap victims.

    In June, Buhari ordered the military to crush the insurgency by December, but the extremists have pushed back with village raids and urban suicide bombings that have killed more than 1,500 people.”

  6. The Latest: Norway Starts ID Checks at the Border (abcnews, Nov 26, 2015)
    http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/latest-dutch-court-asylum-seekers-cooperate-35427584

    “Norwegian police and border officials have started checking identification papers of passengers arriving and leaving, in a move to stem the flow of asylum-seekers.

    The measures adopted Thursday are planned to last 10 days. They include checks on ferries arriving from Germany, Denmark and Sweden. Police have advised all travelers to carry proof of their identity, including if they are moving around in border regions.

    Norway announced the tighter controls after neighboring Sweden proposed tough measures to deal with a huge influx of migrants, expected to reach 200,000 by year’s end — the highest proportionate rate in Europe. Norwegian expects 33,000 refugees this year, a threefold increase on 2014.

    Finland, which has seen a tenfold increase in asylum-seekers this year to an expected 35,000, adopted ID checks and tighter border controls in September.
    ——————–

    Czech President Milos Zeman, known for his critical views of Islam, says Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka is endangering the country by not fully recognizing the danger asylum-seekers are posing.

    In an interview published in Thursday’s edition of the Mlada Fronta daily, Zeman say that unlike the prime minister he considers the migrant wave “an organized invasion.”

    Sobotka previously dismissed Zeman’s suggestion that migration is linked to terrorism. He said it is the terrorists from the Islamic State group who have to be combated, not the refugees.

    Sobotka and other members of his government on Thursday also renewed their criticism of Zeman for addressing a rally of his supporters organized by a major anti-Muslim group on Nov. 17, the 26th anniversary of the anti-communist Velvet Revolution.

    In the interview, Zeman said he would do it again….”

  7. Philippine Forces Kill 8 Suspected to Have IS Sympathies (abcnews, Nov 26, 2015)
    http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/philippine-forces-kill-suspected-sympathies-35429504

    “Philippine military officials say government forces have killed eight suspected sympathizers of the Islamic State group in the southern Philippines.

    Brig. Gen. Emmanuel Salamat says the militants were killed in a brief clash at dawn Thursday with Filipino marines in a hinterland off Palimbang town in Sultan Kudarat province. They were mostly Filipinos but one was possibly Indonesian.

    Salamat says recovered documents show the slain militants belonged to Ansar Al-Khilafa Philippines, a new militant group with about 50 fighters who pledged their allegiance to the Islamic State group leader last year.

    Security officials say some Filipino militants have pledged support to the Islamic State group leader but there is no evidence they have an active collaboration with the brutal group based in Syria and Iraq.”

  8. Saudi Arabia to Execute 55 for ‘Terrorist Crimes’: Report (nbcnews, Nov 26, 2015)
    http://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/saudi-arabia-execute-55-terrorist-crimes-report-n470001

    “RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — Saudi Arabia plans to execute more than 50 people convicted of terrorism, two Saudi newspapers reported this week, in what appears to be a warning to would-be jihadis at a time of militant attacks on the kingdom.

    Fifty-five people were awaiting execution for “terrorist crimes” that killed more than 100 civilians and 71 security personnel, the newspaper Okaz reported on Thursday, without specifying when the executions would occur.

    On Monday, the semi-official newspaper al-Riyadh reported that 52 people would be put to death soon, but it later pulled the story from its website without explanation.

    Some of those facing execution were affiliated with al Qaeda and stand accused of attempts to overthrow the government and carry out attacks using small weapons, explosives and surface-to-air missiles, Okaz reported.

    Saudi Arabia has already executed over 150 people this year, mostly by public beheading, the most in 20 years, rights group Amnesty International said this month.

    The Saudi monarchy has in recent years sentenced to death dozens of people convicted of taking part in al Qaeda attacks in Saudi Arabia from 2003-2006 and again in 2009.

    ISIS sympathizers have killed dozens in Saudi Arabia over the past 12 months with a string of mosque bombings and shootings aimed at members of the Shiite Muslim minority as well as security officers and Western expatriates.

    The Syria and Iraq-based militant group has called on its followers in Saudi Arabia to stay home and conduct attacks there instead of traveling to join the caliphate it declared in 2014.

    The last time Saudi Arabia carried out mass executions for security offences was after a group of Islamist militants seized Mecca’s Grand Mosque in 1979.”

  9. Turkey: Erdogan indignant over downing of Russian Su-24 jet

    Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan expressed no remorse over the downing of the Su-24 aircraft of the Russian Air Force, while speaking in front of Turkish officials in Ankara, Thursday.

    SOT, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, President of Turkey (in Turkish): “It is out of question for Turkey to have direct military intervention against Russia or any other country. We expect everyone to pay regards to our rights to sovereignty and to respect these rights. We don’t find expansion of an incident to affect our political and economic relations right while the whole world finds us right. If the same violation was made today, Turkey would respond in a similar manner.”

    SOT, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, President of Turkey (in Turkish): “It’s the country that carried out the violation which should question itself and take measures to prevent it from happening again, not the country that was subjected to a violation.”

    • ‘We still haven’t received a clear apology from Turkey on Su-24 downing’ – Putin

      Eng subs

      • And Israel was freaking – rightly so – over proposed sale of Russian
        S-300s to Iran. Surface-2-air, extremely tough to penetrate.

        But who knows? Perhaps it’s still a model “S-300” that’s now named “S-400“?

    • Russia’s Foreign Ministry recommended Thursday that Russians refrain from visiting Turkey.

      MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Russia’s Foreign Ministry recommended Thursday that Russians refrain from visiting Turkey, and called on those already in the country to return home.

      “Due to continuing terrorist threats in Turkey, we reiterate our recommendation that Russian citizens refrain from visiting the Republic of Turkey, and we recommend that Russians staying there for personal reasons return home,” the ministry said in a statement.

      http://sputniknews.com/russia/20151126/1030808635/ministry-turkey-tourism-russia.html

      ===============================================

      Turkey accuses Russia of slander as Moscow has 39 businessmen arrested in wake of downed plane

      President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accuses Moscow of slander after suggesting Ankara buys oil from Isil, while Russia detains dozens of Turkish businessmen and threatens sanctions

      […] Mr Erdogan later made similar remarks, saying Turkey did not need to give Russia an apology but that Moscow should.

      “I think if there is a party that needs to apologise, it is not us. Those who violated our airspace are the ones who need to apologise. Our pilots and our armed forces, they simply fulfilled their duties, which consisted of responding to violations of the rules of engagement. I think this is the essence,” he said, in comments reported by Turkey’s English-language newspaper, Today’s Zaman.

      […]Russian immigration officers arrested several dozen Turkish businessmen for visa violations, in the latest in a series of diplomatic and economic measures in retaliation for Tuesday’s incident.

      The 39 businessmen, who had been attending an agricultural industry conference in the southern Russian region of Krasnodar, were arrested on Thursday afternoon for entering the country without business visas.

      “Turkish citizens require a visa to enter the Russian Federation to engage in business activities or for commercial reasons, and the citizens in this case entered Russia for commercial purposes,” VartanTer-Saarkyan, the deputy head of the Krasnodar region migration service, told a local television station.

      http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/turkey/12018941/Turkey-accuses-Russia-of-slander-as-Moscow-has-39-businessmen-arrested-in-wake-of-downed-plane.html

      ============================================

      CNN – Erdogan: We won’t apologize for downing Russian plane

    • President Erdogan says Turkey would have acted differently if it knew downed plane was Russian

      President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Thursday that Turkey would have acted differently if it had known that a warplane its forces downed on the Syrian border this week was Russian.

      “If we had known if it was a Russian plane maybe we would have warned it differently,” Erdogan told France 24 television, adding that Russian President Vladimir Putin had not answered his call after Tuesday’s incident that has seriously damaged ties.

      http://news.yahoo.com/turkey-acted-differently-had-known-jet-russian-erdogan-172306416.html

      • Boston Marathon bombers left Dagestan when they were little kids. No “persecution” here, no weapons “planted”.
        Maybe it’s just Dagestan?
        or Islam?

  10. BREITBART – Venezuela Sold Immigration Documents to Hezbollah Terrorists

    A Venezuelan diplomat in hiding is accusing the socialist government of President Nicolás Maduro of selling visas, passports, and even falsified birth certificates out of its embassy in Baghdad to an estimated thousands of Middle Eastern citizens, including at least one confirmed Hezbollah terrorist.

    A man identifying himself as Misael López Soto, advisor working out of the Venezuelan embassy in Baghdad, says in a video uploaded to YouTube Wednesday evening that he has had to flee his official position following multiple death threats, after attempting to alert the government in Caracas that its satellite in Baghdad had become a marketplace for falsified documents.

    http://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2015/11/26/diplomat-venezuela-sold-immigration-documents-to-hezbollah-terrorists/

  11. Germany: Two people arrested in Berlin police terror raids

    Two men, reportedly of Syrian and Tunisian heritage, were arrested as police undertook raids in two spots areas of Berlin, Thursday. The police had previously received tip-offs about suspected militants believed to present a security threat.

    • At about 1:09 a little police-girl struggles to move to traffic barrier. Poor little thing, doesn’t belong there.
      None of them do. Ridiculous.

  12. Ghani assigns delegation to investigate alleged support by govt to ISIS (khaama, Nov 26, 2015)
    http://www.khaama.com/ghani-assigns-delegation-to-investigate-alleged-support-by-govt-to-isis-1743

    “President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani has assigned a delegation of high level government officials to launch an investigation regarding the alleged support the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) loyalists receive from the government.

    A statement by ARG Presidential Palace said the delegation was assigned after deputy house speaker Mohammad Zahi Qadir claimed that the loyalists of the terror group are supported by the government.

    The statement further added that the decree regarding the assignment of a delegation to investigate claims by deputy house speaker was taken considering the sensitivity of the claim and the negative impact it could create on public opinion…”

  13. President Ghani sacks Kunduz intelligence chief with some other officials (khaama, Nov 26, 2015)
    http://www.khaama.com/president-ghani-sacks-kunduz-intelligence-chief-with-some-other-officials-1742

    “President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani has dismissed the provincial Intelligence – National Directorate of Security (NDS) Chief along with a number of other high level government officials.

    President Ghani arrived in Kunduz this morning on a second visit within the past one month to hold talks with the government officials and local residents.

    The provincial NDS chief has been dismissed apparently due to negligence and being absent from the duty on the day the city fell to the Taliban control…”

  14. Afghanistan supports Russia’s initiative in fight against terrorism: Muslimyar (khaama, Nov 26, 2015)
    http://www.khaama.com/afghanistan-supports-russias-initiative-in-fight-against-terrorism-muslimyar-1741

    “The Chairman of the Upper House of Parliament – Meshrano Jirga, Fazal Hadi Muslimyar said Wednesday that Afghanistan welcomes and supports the initiative by the Russian President Vladimir Putin to create an international coalition against terrorism.

    In a plenary meeting at the Russian Federation Council Upper House of Parliament, Muslimyar said “We welcome and support the initiative of Russian President Vladimir Putin on a truly coordinated fight against terrorism and the creation of an international coalition against it.”

    Muslimyar further added that he was confident “only coordinated international efforts can save the world from the scourge of terrorism.”

    He also added that time has come for “all to agree on a common definition of terrorism and stop using terrorism as a means to achieve their strategic goals.”

    The remarks by Muslimyar comes as Russia’s concerns are growing regarding the escalation of violence in Afghanistan by anti-government armed militant groups including the newly-emerged Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) terrorist group.

    According to the Russian intelligence estimates, some 3,500 militants loyal to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) terrorist group are operating in Afghanistan…”

  15. 4 ISIS terrorists arrested from capital Kabul (khaama, Nov 26, 2015)
    http://www.khaama.com/4-isis-terrorists-arrested-from-capital-kabul-1740

    “At least four militants belonging to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) terrorist group have been arrested from Paghman district of Kabul.

    The Afghan Intelligence – National Directorate of Security (NDS) said the suspects were arrested during a special military operation conducted by intelligence operatives.

    A statement by NDS said the detained militants have been identified as Nisar Ahmad, Nabullah, Obaidullah and Syed Sohail who were recruited by ISIS commander Rafiullah.

    The statement further added that Rafiullah is leading a group of 20 militants in Achin district of eastern Nangarhar province.

    NDS also added that the group was looking to assassinate police commander Sher Agha by detonating an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) planted under a culvert in Zarashkh area of Paghman.

    The detained militants have confessed that they were affiliated with the ISIS terrorist group, NDS said.

    This is the first time the Afghan security forces have arrested militants affiliated with the ISIS terrorist group from capital Kabul.

    The militants are arrested amid concerns that the terror group is expanding its activities in various parts of the country by establishing foothold in remote parts of the volatile provinces including the eastern Nangarhar.”

  16. Pakistan claims senior TTP leader Khan Sayed killed in Afghanistan (khaama, Nov 26, 2015)
    http://www.khaama.com/pakistan-claims-senior-ttp-leader-khan-sayed-killed-in-afghanistan-1739

    “The Pakistani security officials have claimed a senior member of Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) has been killed in a drone strike in Afghanistan.

    The officials further added that Khan Sayed who was also known as Sajna was killed on Wednesday close to Durand Line with North Waziristan.

    Leading a breakaway faction of Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), Sajna was killed in Damma region in Khost Province, the intelligence officials said.

    They also added that the airstrike left at least 12 other militants as well and wounded 20 more.

    A Pakistani intelligence official speaking on the condition of anonymity confirmed that Sajna was killed along with 12 others.

    He said the airstrike targeted a gathering of TTP leaders while they were holding talks to narrow differences among them…”

  17. Russia, France Agree to Tighten Cooperation Against IS (abcnews, Nov 26, 2015)
    http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/french-president-visit-moscow-terrorism-talks-35429796

    “The presidents of France and Russia agreed Thursday to tighten cooperation in the fight against the Islamic State group, although they remained at odds over their approach toward Syrian President Bashar Assad.

    IS has claimed responsibility for deadly attacks against both of the countries’ citizens in recent weeks: Nov. 13 shootings and suicide bombings in Paris which killed 130 people, and the Oct. 31 bombing of a Russian passenger jet over Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula that claimed 224 lives.

    French President Francois Hollande has been on a diplomatic drive since the Paris attacks to increase cooperation in tackling IS, which holds swathes of territory in both Syria and Iraq. He has met this week with President Barak Obama, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi before flying to Moscow on Thursday for talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

    Hollande and Putin agreed on increasing intelligence sharing, intensifying their airstrikes against IS in Syria and cooperating on selecting targets — two days after Turkey downed a Russian warplane near the Syrian border…”

  18. Russia: Oil from Syrian ‘terrorists’ heading to Turkey on ‘industrial scale’ says Putin

  19. US soldiers in Syria to back anti-IS Kurds: Kurdish sources

    US soldiers are in Kobane, the town in northern Syria nearly destroyed in fierce fighting with the Islamic State group, to train Kurdish forces to battle the jihadists, Kurdish sources said Thursday.

    Mustapha Abdi, an activist in the town on the Turkish border, told AFP the American instructors had arrived “in recent hours”, in what is the first official deployment of US ground troops in Syria.

    A source with the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) said the Americans would help plan offensives against two Syrian cities held by IS — Jarablus and the jihadists’ Syrian “capital”, Raqa.

    At the same time, they would have help coordinate with the Kurds and their Arab and Syriac Christian allies on the ground air strikes on IS by the US-lead coalition, the YPG source said.

    Abdi said that the troops who had arrived were a “first group of instructors” who would train the Kurds.

    Rami Abdel Rahman, the director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a British-based monitor, said ¸strong>”more than 50 American instructors have arrived in northern and northeastern Syria”.

    He said they had arrived in two groups over the past two days, coming from Turkey and from the autonomous Kurdish region of neighbouring Iraq.

    He said about 30 were in Kobane itself, with the rest in Hasakeh province in eastern Syria.

    Abdel Rahman, whose group relies on a local network of sources, said the US troops are expected to rendezvous in Kobane to train fighters from the Syrian Democratic Forces, an alliance of factions backed by the United States.

    The US Central Command declined to comment on details.

    “We have said before that we will be putting a small number of troops on the ground in Syria to coordinate with our partners there in a non-combat role. We will not be providing the specifics of their whereabouts or travel plans beyond that,” a statement said.

    The news comes after Brett McGurk, President Barack Obama’s special envoy to the coalition, said Sunday that US forces would be arriving on the ground “very soon”.

    At the end of October, Obama authorised the deployment of 50 special operations troops to Syria, and McGurk said their job would be to “organise” local forces.

    A key objective will be to “isolate” Raqa, he said.

    The alliance of local fighters has already retaken more than 1,000 square kilometres (386 square miles) from IS and killed around 300 IS fighters, McGurk said.

    IS began an offensive on the Kobane area, which lies right on the Turkish border, in September 2014.

    Within a couple of weeks it had captured scores of villages and towns around Kobane city and attacked it, prompting thousands of Kurds to flee their homes.

    After a desperate resistance that drew worldwide attention, the Kurds managed to regain full control of the city in January and eventually retake most of the lost territory.

    http://news.yahoo.com/us-soldiers-syria-back-anti-kurds-kurdish-sources-170547319.html