International Shia News Agency

PressTv/ Turkey questions US-led coalition’s too much focus on Kobani

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association)- Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says the so-called US-led military campaign against the ISIL Takfiri militants has concentrated too much on the Syrian Kurdish town of Kobani.

“Why Kobani and not otherwise towns like Idlib, Hama or Homs … while Iraqi territory is 40 percent controlled by the ISIL?” Erdogan told a news conference in Paris on Friday after talks with his French counterpart, Francois Hollande.

Erdogan added, “There are only 2,000 fighters in Kobani. It is difficult to understand this approach. Why has the coalition not acted in other zones?”

The Turkish government has repeatedly called on the US-led coalition to carry out airstrikes beyond Kobani in an implicit reference to the Syrian army positions.

Analysts say Ankara, having already won the US green light, plans to let the ISIL terrorists seize Kobani, known in Arabic as Ain al-Arab.

Ankara says it fears that Kobani might be taken over by Syrian Kurds allied to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), a group that has been fighting for an autonomous Kurdish region in southeastern Turkey since the 1980s.

Turkey unexpectedly announced last week that it would allow the Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga forces to enter Kobani through its border with Syria.

Kobani and its surroundings have been under attack since mid-September, with the ISIL militants capturing dozens of nearby Kurdish villages. More than 800 people have been killed on both sides during the battle for the town.

According to reports, the intense fighting for the strategic town has forced over 200,000 people to take refuge in neighboring Turkey.

 

Source:PressTV

www.shafaqna.com

 

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