British, Us Forces Join Peshmerga Fighters On Is Front Line

[Vigilante]

Britain and American special forces are working with Kurdish fighters on the Iraqi front lines as part of a major offensive to push IS jihadists back and relieve pressure on the besieged Syria town of Kobani, senior Kurdish military officers have disclosed.

According to daily Telegraph the Kurdish forces launched attacks just before dawn on three fronts - Rabia, on the Syrian border, Zummar, a town near Mosul Dam, and a number of villages near Daquq, south of Kirkuk.
Britain and American special forces were working along these battle zones as observers on the front lines as well as training Kurdish troops. Brig. Gen. Hikmet also said that discussions were under way to give them a dedicated base near the Kurdish city of Dohuk.
"The [US and UK] special forces have been so effective for us," Brig-Gen Helgurd Hikmet told the Telegraph. "Their special forces don't take any part in the fighting. They are only taking a role in training and teaching, and also as observers. As observers they go to the front line, but don't do any fighting.".......

Kurdpress News Aganecy - British US forces join Peshmerga fighters on IS front line, US forces join Peshmerga fighters on IS front line

 

[gtopa1]

It was only a matter of time. Yanks are used to Obamabull now; no boots on the ground means exactly THAT: like "you can keep your doctor".

Godspeed to those in harm's way!!

Greg

 

[Claudette]

It was only a matter of time. Yanks are used to Obamabull now; no boots on the ground means exactly THAT: like "you can keep your doctor".

Godspeed to those in harm's way!!

Greg

You bet. I sure dont' want any of our boys in harms way in that shithole.

The only good thing is the Kurds who are hellatious fighters and won't shoot our men in the back like the Iraqi's and the Afghans.

Another lie by Barry. Not surprised. He lies all the time. Asshole. You can bet your ass his boots won't be on the ground anywherre and he gets to keep his own doctor.

Prayers for our men in harms way.

 

[waltky]

ISIS about to take Kobani...

Turkey: Syrian town about to fall to jihadists
Oct 7,`14 -- The Islamic State group is about to capture the Syrian border town of Kobani, Turkey's president said Tuesday, as outgunned Kurdish forces struggled to repel the extremists with limited aid from U.S.-led coalition airstrikes.

Islamic State fighters using tanks and heavy weapons looted from captured army bases in Iraq and Syria have been pounding Kurdish forces in the town of Kobani for days. Since the extremists' offensive began in mid-September, more than 400 people have been killed in the fighting, activists said. The beleaguered Kurdish militiamen defending Kobani received some support overnight and Tuesday from the American-led coalition, which carried out six airstrikes against Islamic State militants around the town, destroying four armed vehicles, damaging a tank and killing fighters, the U.S. military said.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the coalition air campaign launched last month would not be enough to halt the Islamic State group's advance and called for greater cooperation with the Syrian opposition, which is fighting both the extremists and forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad. "Kobani is about to fall," Erdogan told Syrian refugees in the Turkish town of Gaziantep, near the border. "We asked for three things: one, for a no-fly zone to be created; two, for a secure zone parallel to the region to be declared; and for the moderate opposition in Syria and Iraq to be trained and equipped."

A Turkish forces armored vehicle patrols the border road in Mursitpinar, on the outskirts of Suruc, as fighting in nearby Kobani, Syria intensified between Syrian Kurds and militants of Islamic State group, at the Turkey-Syria border, Tuesday, Oct. 7, 2014. Kobani, also known as Ayn Arab and its surrounding areas have been under attack since mid-September, with militants capturing dozens of nearby Kurdish villages

Turkish tanks and other ground forces have been stationed along the border within a few hundred meters (yards) of the fighting in Kobani - also known as Ayn Arab - but have not intervened. Just days ago, Turkey said it wouldn't let Kobani fall. Syrian Kurds, however, have scoffed at the rhetoric coming out of Ankara. They say that not only are the Turks not helping, they are actively hindering the defense of Kobani by preventing Kurdish militiamen in Turkey from crossing the border into the town to help in the fight. "We are besieged by Turkey, it is not something new," said Ismet Sheikh Hassan, the Kurdish defense chief for the Kobani region.

Despite Erdogan's dire assessment, Kurdish forces managed to push Islamic State militants out of most of the eastern part of Kobani on Monday, hours after the extremists stormed into neighborhoods on the edge of town, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The Kurds may have been helped by a round of airstrikes late Monday against Islamic State positions. Two more rounds followed Tuesday morning, when journalists on the Turkish side of the border heard the sound of warplanes before large plumes of smoke billowed just west of Kobani. Those strikes helped slow the Islamic State group's shelling of Kobani, Hassan said.

MORE

See also:

Embattled Kurds key in fight against Islamic State
Oct 7,`14: The Kurds of Syria and Iraq have become a major focal point in the war against the Islamic State group, with Kurdish populations in both countries coming under significant threat by the militants' lightening advance.

Syrian and Iraqi Kurds took part in cross-border operations to help rescue tens of thousands of displaced people from the minority Yazidi group from Iraq's Sinjar Mountain in August. In Turkey, Kurds are pressing the government in Ankara to help their brethren in the embattled Syrian border town of Kobani. The cooperation between Kurds in these countries underscores their loyalty to the shared dream of establishing an independent and unified Kurdistan, or Land of the Kurds - and not to the nations in which they live.

WHO ARE THE KURDS?

The Kurds are an ethnic group with their own language and customs whose nomadic past led to their modern-day dispersal across several countries, mostly Turkey, Iraq, Syria, Iran and Armenia. Sunni Muslims make up the vast majority, but there is a sizeable Shiite population, particularly in Iran. After the collapse of the Ottoman and Qajar empires and the subsequent creation of these modern states, Iraq, Iran and Turkey each agreed against the creation of an independent Kurdistan, making them the largest stateless minority group in the world. With nearly 25 million people living in five countries, they continue to push for self-rule.

WHAT IS THEIR ROLE IN TURKEY?

Turkey is home to an estimated 15 million Kurds, about one-fifth of the country's population of 76 million. Most are Sunni Muslim. An insurgent group, the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, has fought a three-decade war, initially for independence and later for autonomy and greater rights for Kurds. The conflict with the PKK has killed tens of thousands of people since 1984.

A Turkish Kurd, standing on the the Turkey-Syria border, uses binoculars to watch fighting between militants of the Islamic State group and Kurdish forces in Kobani, Syria, on outskirts of Suruc, Turkey. The Kurds of Syria and Iraq have become a major focal point in the war against the Islamic State group, with Kurdish populations in both countries coming under significant threat by the militants’ lightening advance. The cooperation between Kurds in these countries underscores their loyalty, not to the nations in which they live, but to the shared dream of one day establishing an independent and unified Kurdistan, or Land of the Kurds.

Turkey and its U.S. and European allies consider the Marxist PKK a terrorist organization for killing civilians in urban bombings. It is now also engaged in peace talks with the PKK's imprisoned leader, Abdullah Ocalan, to end the conflict. Kurds, who accuse Turkey of not doing enough to help their brethren in Syria, have warned that the peace process could come to an end if the Syrian Kurdish town of Kobani falls to the Islamic State militants.

WHERE DO THEY STAND IN IRAQ?

 

[Vigilante]

Here's the CHIEF COMMANDER doing his second most favorite thing!

 

[deltex1]

If the boys are in Kobani it is not apparent.

Anyone recall Black Hawk Down?

 

[paulitician]

Go figure? The two most meddlesome nations on earth, meddling again? Shocking i tells ya.