Late on Friday (31/10/14) evening Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga entered the city of Kobane/Ayn al-Arab equipped with medium and heavy weapons along with other supplies. Their mission was to link up with the Kurdish Peoples Protection Units (YPG) who have been defending this strategically important city from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) for the past 7 weeks.
This newly bolstered YPG force quickly made its presence felt launching an attack against ISIL positions in the north-east of the city on Saturday (1/11/14) evening. This attack was successful with several ISIL positions being over-run, weapons and ammunition being captured and 14 ISIL fighters being killed. Sadly ISIL didn't take this lying down and on Sunday (2/11/14) launched a counter-offensive in a effort to recover the territory they had lost the previous day. After almost a day of intense fighting ISIL were eventually beaten back allowing the YPG to secure their gains whilst killing 15 ISIL fighters including 3 senior commanders who are known as Emirs.
Despite reports that a group of ISIL fighters in their stronghold of Raqqa - some 140km (84 miles) to the south-east of Kobane - were executed for mutiny after being told they were being sent to Kobane it seems clear that ISIL still intends to fight for Kobane. On Saturday they launched a fresh attempt to seize the eastern governance district from the YPG. However after a night of heavy fighting the YPG were able to resist this fresh assault killing 14 ISIL fighters in the process. ISIL's main focus in Kobane though has been a massive attack focused on the south of the city. This offensive began on Saturday evening and heavy fighting raged until Sunday afternoon. During this time 31 ISIL fighters were killed including 5 who were in an armoured vehicle that the YPG ambushed and destroyed. The fighting in the southern section also saw 2 members of the YPG being killed - the Kurds only fatalities of the weekend.
In even better news for Kobane's Kurdish defenders there have today been reports - unconfirmed at this stage - that the logistics unit that brought the Peshmerga to Suruc in Turkey on Thursday (30/10/14) have since returned to Arbil in Iraq where they have simply loaded up their trucks again and are heading back to Suruc. Hopefully Turkey will not only give permission for but also actively support this fresh convoy because if Kobane is to be defended then supply convoys between Arbil and Kobane need to become a regular occurrence until ISIL have been defeated.
Away from Kobane the US-led coalition's strategy in Syria suffered another major set-back today when fighters from the Al-Qaeda affiliate Al Nusra Front (ANF) seized Bab al-Hawa from the Free Syrian Army (FSA). A major border crossing with Turkey Bab al-Hawa is around 45km (27 miles) west of Aleppo city and around 50km (30 miles) to the north of Jabal al-Zawiya which ANF seized from the FSA on Saturday. However I am less concerned with ANF taking over Bab al-Hawa then ISIL potentially taking over Kobane for a host of reasons. The main one of these is that Turkey seems far closer to ISIL then it is to ANF meaning that it is less likely to assist them in their smuggling operations. Also being a far less brutal group than ISIL ANF went through a very deep split with ISIL and have actively fought them in the past. As such while I wouldn't advise that the coalition allies itself with ANF provided ANF continue to fight ISIL I'm not sure their destruction should be considered a priority.
The real damage to the US-led coalition's strategy that was done at Bab al-Hawa was that the FSA faction that was defending it was Harakat Hazm. As with the Syrian Revolutionaries Front (SRF) at Jabal al-Zawiya Harakat Hazm were one of the FSA factions that the US has been training and equipping with advanced weapons after what we were assured was careful vetting and monitoring. As with the SRF at Jabal al-Zawiya it appears that Harakat Hazm have also now defected to ANF taking their advanced weapons including MILAN-type TOW anti-tank missiles and possibly Stinger-type anti-aircraft missiles with them.
If that wasn't problem enough for the coalition then today ISIL succeeded in seizing the Jahar gas field in central Idlib province from Syrian government forces. This adds to the Shaer gas field that ISIL captured on Thursday. ISIL now control so many oil and natural gas fields across Iraq and Syria that they have begun to advertise for qualified professionals to help them run them. As US President Obama's strategy - if you can call it that - to defeat ISIL seems centred entirely of cutting of their sources of finance from oil and gas the fact that ISIL are increasing the amount of oil and gas under their control is utterly humiliating.
19:25 on 3/11/14 (UK date).
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