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KOBANI, Syria (North Press) – Four women lost their lives including a feminist activist and many others injured on Tuesday evening in an aerial bombardment allegedly by Turkish air force that targeted the village of Helenj, east of the town of Kobani, north Syria, local sources said. The sources in the village told North Press that a feminist activist, named Zahra Barkal, was among the women who lost their lives in the bombardment. Barkal was an official in the Kurdish Women Organization, known as Kongreya Star, which activities focus on the feminist movement in northeastern Syria. Barkal was visiting a...

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – A Turkish drone strike on Tuesday evening killed three civilian females at a residence in the village of Helincê, located outside the northern Syrian city of Kobani, according to local security forces. The General Command of the Kurdish-led Internal Security Forces (ISF), also known as the Asayesh, in an official statement said blamed the “Turkish occupation” for the attack. “We in the General Command of the Internal Security Forces (ISF) for Northeast Syria condemn the crimes of the Turkish occupation against our people and we also call on the International Coalition and the Russian Federation to...

According to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), a deal has been reached through which Syrian government forces will protect the Kurdish-held towns of Kobani and Manbij. US troops had been deployed in both towns since they were cleared of "Islamic State" (IS) militants in 2015. However, last week US President Donald Trump made the surprise announcement that he was pulling the US military out of Kurdish Syria, leaving a key US ally in the fight against IS vulnerable to the Turkish army. Turkey, which has been fighting an off-and-on insurgency from armed Kurdish groups in its own...

An American woman captured by Kurdish forces after fleeing the last pocket of land controlled by Islamic State says she “deeply regrets” travelling to Syria to join the terror group and has pleaded to be allowed to return to her family in Alabama. Once one of Isis’s most prominent online agitators who took to social media to call for the blood of Americans to be spilled, Hoda Muthana, 24, claims to have made a “big mistake” when she left the US four years ago and says she was brainwashed into doing so online... “We were basically in the time of...

The villages of Zormixar and Xirab Eto, west of Kobanî were shelled with tanks and artillery by the Turkish occupation army. KOBANÎ According to local sources, the Turkish occupation army has shelled the villages of Zormixar and Xirab Eto, west of Kobanî near the border, at 10:30 am on Wednesday morning, with several shells landing on the village of Xirab Eto and its environs and Zormixar village. The sources confirmed that the shelling did not result in casualties or injuries and limited to some damage to the houses of the parents. The source said that the shelling is still ongoing...

Launching from the concept of the democratic nation and the co-existence among the sects and religions in North Syria under the Democratic Autonomous Administration, the Christians Committee in Kobanî canton in the Euphrates region opened a church called Church of the Brethren. 13 Sep 2018, Thu - 23:33 KOBANÎThe Committee of Christians and the Christians living in Kobanî canton in the Euphrates region opened on Thursday a church called Church of the Brethren in Kobanî based on the concept of the democratic nation and the co-existence of sects and religions. The co-chair of the Democratic Society Movement’ Council Ahmed Sheikho,...

An Islamic State flag in Gaziantep on the Turkish-Syrian border. An Islamic State (IS) suspect has said he met regularly with former Justice and Development Party (AKP) minister and current Gaziantep mayor, Fatma Sahin, during the height of the jihadist group’s assault on Kobani in 2014.According to a report in the Turkish daily Evrensel, Bahaa Alden Najeep, who is accused of involvement in the Gaziantep wedding attack killing 57 civilians, told police that he had set up the Association for Educating and Developing Syrian Youth in border city Gaziantep upon the request of Free Syrian Army (FSA) officials and that his responsibility was to transfer...

KOBANI, Syria — I recently stayed overnight in Serekaniye and awoke to unusual sounds at about 5 a.m. I looked out and saw a group of Asayish (local Kurdish police), both men and women, engaged in physical training in an empty lot. Serekaniye had been the scene of clashes in 2012-13 between the Kurds and groups supported by Turkey. Now, the Asayish there look like a disciplined army.  Not quite 200 miles away in Kobani, there is other evidence that the Kurds have serious aspirations for Rojava, officially the Democratic Federal System of Northern Syria. Though rubble remains in most parts, the city is both rebuilding and launching new construction. There is...

Rojava ‏@AzadiRojava 27m27 minutes ago Friends I say goodnight with this pic. Especially for my friend @TX_1. There's a restaurant now in Kobanî with the name:pic.twitter.com/enAb0wdL7o

GENEVA— The International Commission of Inquiry on Syria is calling on states to curb the flow of weapons to armed groups, which it blames for fueling the war that has killed nearly one quarter of a million people in Syria since March 2011. The Commission has presented an oral update of its latest findings to the UN Human Rights Council.In a hard-hitting emotional presentation before the U.N. Human Rights Council, Commission Chair Paulo Sergio Pinheiro told members of the U.N. Council that Syria has fallen apart before their eyes“A nation has collapsed into the world’s most chaotic and lethal battlefield....

Turkey has said areas in north Syria cleared of fighters belonging to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group will become safe zones. Saturday’s announcement made by Mevlut Cavusoglu, the Turkish foreign minister, came after Ankara announced it had begun bombing ISIL positions in Syria and and Kurdish fighters' camps in northern Iraq. "When areas in northern Syria are cleared of the (ISIL) threat, the safe zones will be formed naturally," Cavusoglu told a news conference. The conflict in Syria has displaced more than 10 million people, with many residing in makeshift camps near the Turkish border.These...

Turkey has been accused of allowing Islamic State jihadists to cross its border to attack the Kurdish town of Kobane. Twin car bombs exploded close to the crossing point with the Turkish town of Mursitpinar, and Kurdish activists and residents claimed they had come across the border, despite its being heavily policed on the Turkish side. Convoys of cars carrying up to 40 Isil fighters - reportedly using the uniform of Kurdish YPG militia as a guise - then attacked Kobane from three sides in the early hours of Thursday morning. Kobane became an important symbol in the battle against...

Recently, the Kurdish Peshmerga won a major victory against the Islamic State group in northern Syria, taking back a town known as Tal Abyad. Amazingly, the Obama administration took credit for this hard-fought victory, even though it had next to nothing to do with it. White House press secretary Josh Earnest said the Kurdish victory was “actually a direct consequence of an earlier military operation that President Obama ordered” to break the siege of the Syrian city of Kobani last fall. This laughable claim was quickly shot down by the Kurds themselves, who stated that they could have taken the town back much more...

Reports and photos from the Kurdish Regional Government capital of Irbil in northern Iraq that bombing attack took place near the U.S. consulate.Large explosion near US consulate in #erbil followed by gunfire Source.An explosion in #Ainkawa #Erbil close to #US consulate #TwitterKurds Source.I am at the scene my camera a bi explosion rocks ankawa erbil the christian city Source with video at link.Just shot this and was shot at live bullets , ankawa erbil bad daySource.Many injuries i watched several foreigners injured #ankawa #erbil Source.

Since October 2014, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has regularly referred to the concept of a "Mastermind" (ust akil, "supra-intellect," in Turkish) that, he says, is plotting against Turkey. This concept has been applauded by the Islamist pro-AKP media. Erdogan's December 12, 2014 speech, which focused on this "mastermind" concept, inspired the production of a two-hour "documentary" by one of the leading Turkish television channels, the pro-AKP A Haber. The film, titled "The Mastermind," first aired on March 15, 2015 and has been broadcast repeatedly since then; in addition, the Turkish Islamist pro-AKP media are circulating the film on their...

Though Islamic State is still spreading terror, its weaknesses are becoming apparent. The caliphate has been pushed out of the Syrian town of Kobane by Kurdish fighters, backed by American air power. It is being squeezed in Tikrit (the tribal base of the former dictator, Saddam Hussein) by the Iraqi army and Shia militias co-ordinated by Iran. Compared with the peak, when it was at the gates of Baghdad, its territory has shrunk by about 25%. IS’s funds are dwindling, too. America and its allies have bombed lucrative oil facilities. Most of the hostages have been sold or murdered in...

We know from leaked recordings in the past year that Turkey has been planning to use the tomb of Suleiman Shah as an excuse to invade Syria in hopes of sparking a war: TurkeyÂ’s plan to invade its neighboring country of Syria was uncovered when a secret recording leaked of the highest officials discussing a plan to launch a military aggression on Syria by using the armed terrorist group Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS). Â… ErdoÄŸanÂ’s government was planning a false flag attack to be executed by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) against...

Hundreds of Turkish troops in armoured vehicles have entered into northern Syria and evacuated a historic Ottoman tomb and the soldiers guarding it. Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said the remains of Suleyman Shah would be moved elsewhere in Syria. He said troops had destroyed the tomb's complex, apparently to prevent it from being used by Islamic State (IS) militants. Turkey considers the shrine be to sovereign territory. Suleyman Shah was grandfather of the founder of the Ottoman empire, Osman the first. SNIP-- The operation began on Saturday at about 21:00 local time (19:00 GMT) and ended on Sunday morning. A...

Hundreds of Turkish troops backed by tanks took part in an overnight operation into neighboring Syria to evacuate dozens of besieged soldiers guarding an Ottoman tomb and remove the remains amid fears the shrine was threatened by Islamic State militants. The mission late Saturday, saving Turkish soldiers reportedly stuck for months at the tomb of the grandfather of the founder of the Ottoman Empire, was the first such major military incursion by Turkey since the Syrian conflict began in March 2011. Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said nearly 600 Turkish soldiers on some 100 tanks and armored personnel carriers crossed...

Australians were among the largest contingent of foreign jihadists killed in the battle for Kobani, a senior US state department official has said, after Kurdish forces announced the “liberation” of the Syrian city on Monday. A coalition of Kurdish and Syrian rebel fighters claimed full control over Kobani, located less than a mile from the Turkish border, after a bloody four-month siege by the militia group known as Islamic State (Isis or Isil). Their victory was confirmed by a senior US state department official on Tuesday, who told AFP: “[Isis] is now, whether on order or whether they are breaking...