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Monday, October 20, 2014

On Target

As we ramp up air strikes around Kobani to rack up the jihadi body count as ISIL commits forces to the conquest of that city from the Kurdish defenders, keeping those defenders in the fight has become much more important.

We dropped weapons to keep those ISIL fighters in action:

The U.S. Central Command said it had delivered weapons, ammunition and medical supplies to the Kurds who are trying to stave off an onslaught by Islamic State fighters who have overrun swathes of Syria and Iraq this year.

The main Syrian Kurdish group defending Kobani from the better armed Islamic State militants said on Monday the town had received "a large quantity" of ammunition and weapons.

Three C-130s carried out the drop. Good.

I've heard that with our air strikes inside the city in support of the Kurds, somebody wearing boots must be on the ground calling in those strikes.

Turkey, at least, is allowing Kurds into the Kobani region where they can use those arms:

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Washington had asked Ankara to let Iraqi Kurds cross its territory so that they could help defend the town which lies on the Turkish frontier, adding that he hoped the Kurds would "take this fight on".

If we can really fix the attention of all those ISIL fighters into Kobani to their front from the west, south, and east, the Turks--if they choose--could do some serious damage to ISIL from the rear.