US Central Command said that the US had conducted 8 more airstrikes on Wednesday, for a total of 19 in the past four days, to try to halt the advance on Kobani. But officials drew a sharp distinction between Syria and Iraq, where it conducts airstrikes in concert with Kurdish pesh merga fighters and the Iraqi military. “That sort of ground operation doesn’t currently exist in Syria right now, and that will limit the effectiveness of the US military to have the same kind of impact on the situation in Kobani,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters. On Wednesday, Mr. Obama was briefed on the military campaign by his commanders at the Pentagon and then met there with his national security team. “It remains a difficult mission,” he said. “As I’ve indicated from the start, this is not something that is going to be solved overnight.” The administration’s downbeat tone seemed aimed at managing expectations about the campaign and also at pressuring Turkey, which has signed on to the coalition but has so far been reluctant to commit military resources in the conflict. Officials said they wanted the Turks to act by deploying ground troops in Syria, firing artillery at the militants, helping to train and arm Syrian rebels, sharing intelligence or opening its border to let Turkish Kurdish fighters join the fight and Syrian Kurds to flee the town. The White House, however, has not specifically asked Turkey to send troops to defend Kobani, in part because the Syrian Kurds there do not want Turkish reinforcements. The role of Turkish troops in Syria is complicated because President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has made no secret that he wants to oust President Bashar al-Assad as much as he wants to repel the Islamic State [and diminish Kurdish power in and around Turkey —see below].
Posted on: Thu, 09 Oct 2014 11:35:19 +0000
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