From Voice of America
U.S. forces and those from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates conducted 13 airstrikes in eastern Syria as part of an operation against the Islamic State group, Wednesday.
Syrians collect their belongings from the rubble of destroyed houses following the U.S.-led coalition’s airstrikes against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) on a residential area in Idlib, Syria on September 23, 2014. (Photo by Ahmed Hasan Ubeyd/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)
U.S. Central Command, which oversees American military operations in the Middle East, said the attacks targeted small-scale IS-seized oil refineries that generate up to $2 million per day for the militants.
According to Syrian activists, suspected U.S.-led airstrikes killed 14 militants and five civilians in northeastern Syria.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Thursday the overnight strikes hit the Deir el-Zour and Hassakeh areas.
Kurdish forces push back IS in northern Syria
In northern Syria, Kurdish forces pushed back an advance by Islamic State fighters towards a strategic town on the Turkish border Thursday and appealed for U.S.-led air strikes to target the insurgents’ tanks and heavy armaments.
Islamic State launched a new offensive to try to capture the border town of Kobani more than a week ago, besieging it from three sides. At least 140,000 Kurds have fled the town and surrounding villages since Friday, crossing into Turkey.
Kurdish and Islamic State fighters exchanged artillery and machine gun fire in a cluster of villages about 15 km (9 miles) west of Kobani, where the frontline appeared not to have moved significantly for several days, a Reuters witness said.
Kurdish officials meanwhile said Islamic State had concentrated their fighters south of the town late on Wednesday and had pushed towards it, but that the main Kurdish armed group in northern Syria, the YPG, had repelled them overnight.
French jets pound Iraq
French fighter jets struck targets in Iraq on Thursday, government spokesman Stephane Le Foll said.
“There were strikes in Iraq this morning,” Le Foll announced without giving any further details.
The strikes were the first by French jets since September 19 when Paris joined the United States military action against Islamic State insurgents in Iraq who have taken over parts of the country.
France opens door to possible Syria strikes
France on Thursday opened the door to possibly joining air strikes in Syria just hours after an Algerian Islamist group beheaded a French tourist in retaliation for Paris’ military action against Islamic State militants in Iraq.
France has repeatedly ruled out taking part in air action in Syria where Islamic State has its power base. It fears that strikes against militants there would leave a void that only Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s forces could fill, making it difficult for “moderate” rebels to counter the more organized Syrian army.
But the death of French tourist Herve Gourdel, who was beheaded in Algeria just 24 hours after an ultimatum was given to France to halt attacks in Iraq, appeared to toughen Paris’ resolve.
“The opportunity is not there today. We already have an important task in Iraq and we will see in the coming days how the situation evolves,” Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian told RTL radio.
Pressed further on whether it was a possibility in the future, Le Drian, who is taking part in a war cabinet meeting on Thursday, said: “The question is on the table”.
‘Network of death’
As he addressed the United Nations General Assembly Wednesday, President Barack Obama urged Islamic State fighters to “leave the battlefield while you can”.
Obama blamed sectarian conflicts around the world for creating a “fertile recruiting ground” for groups like the Islamic State, which has taken over parts of Syria and Iraq in a bloody months-long armed campaign.
“There can be no reasoning – no negotiation – with this brand of evil. The only language understood by killers like this is the language of force. So the United States of America will work with a broad coalition to dismantle this network of death,” the president said.
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