Kurds tell of battle for Kobani

Daily Hampshire Gazette ^ | Sunday, October 12, 2014 | By RYAN LUCAS

[Texas Fossil]

SURUC, Turkey — The shells were already roaring down on the Kurdish fighters from the hill above Kobani when more than 30 Islamic State militants backed by snipers and pickups mounted with heavy machine guns began their assault across the dusty fields.

Holed up in an industrial area of squat, concrete buildings on Kobani’s eastern edges, the outgunned Kurds could do little to repel the attack, recalled Dalil Boras, one of the defenders during the Oct. 6 assault. The Islamic State group’s firepower proved too much, so the Kurds withdrew through the gray streets to a tree-lined park, ceding a foothold in the town to the extremist fighters, who promptly raised two black flags over their newly conquered territory.

A week later, the Kurdish men and women of the People’s Protection Units, or YPG, are still holding out, if barely, with a helping hand from more than 20 airstrikes by the U.S.-led coalition against Islamic State positions.

[notdownwidems]

W(hy)TF aren't we arming these people? That attack could have been completely repulsed with a handful of Mk19s and M2s.

Pretty obvious isn't it? Our political leadership is with ISIS

[onedoug]

Meanwhile in our inillustrious “conservative” Congress...

...zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz....