Peshmerga, Free Syrian Army Fighters in Turkey, to Cross into Kobane - UPDATES

UPDATE: Peshmerga forces on ground, U.S. warplanes above, FSA supporting, to help YPG defend Kobane, the Kurdish Stalingrad

Kurdish KDP Peshmerga and Free Syrian Army fighters arrived in Turkey Wednesday night to cross a land bridge into Kobane to help Kurdish forces defend the city against ISIL invasion.

Meanwhile, U.S. CENTCOM announced 12 airstrikes against ISIL positions in Syria since Wednesday, including 10 in Kobane.

UPDATE I: The first contingent of Syrian Free Army fighters arrived in Kobane on Thursday 30 October.

UPDATE II: Forward elements of Peshmerga have entered Kobane in the early afternoon on Thursday 30 October.

UPDATE III: Peshmerga forces, in a dozen trucks and jeeps, escorted by armored vehicles, crossed from Turkey into Kobane on Friday 31 October. U.S. warplanes bombed ISIL positions in and around the city heavily to prevent it from attacking Peshmerga convoy heading into Kobane.

Photo above: In a hugely symbolic moment, the Peshmerga convoy was greeted by the cheering Kurds on the Turkish side of the border (Photo credit: Twitter)

Photo below: Peshmerga and FSA fighters in Kobane assessing the battlefield with YPG; 30 October 2014 (Photo credit: DIHA/Twitter)

Pentagon Gives Three Objectives for Training Syrian Opposition

The Pentagon on Monday provided three objectives for its plans to train and equip moderate Syrian forces in their fight against the Islamic State. They are to increase the defensive, offensive and counter-terrorism capabilities of the opposition fighters:

• To hold and defend liberated territories from ISIL

• To increase pressure on ISIL as well as the Assad regime 

• To conduct specific counter-terror operations

A Pentagon spokesman, Col. Steve Warren, told reporters that it was too soon to be able to know who would command the opposition forces against ISIL after they finish training. The U.S. plans to train and equip more than 5,000 of the rebels for one year. (The Hill, 16 September)

The Pentagon would not start training until Congress approves the authority, which could come as early as this week.

File photo: Syrian rebels during heavy clashes with Syrian government soldiers in Salah al-Din neighborhood of Aleppo. (AMC)

IRGC General Killed in Syria

Abdullah Eskandari, an IRGC Brigadier General, was killed in Syria on Saturday. Circumstances of his death are not clear, but an armed Syrian opposition group reportedly captured and later killed Eskandari. A website close to the Syrian opposition has published a photo of decapitated head of the late General Eskandari.

Eskandari was former director of Bonyad Shahid (Martyr Foundation) in Fars province, and former commander of Kerman division of IRGC Ground Force. At the time of his capture, he was posted in Damascus. Earlier this month, Eskandari was quoted in the Iranian press as saying that IRGC had many brigades fighting in Syria.

Since the involvement of the Quds Force and IRGC Ground Forces in the Syrian conflict, funeral and memorial services for some 60 fallen IRGC officers, including some general officers, have been reported by Iranian press.

The Syrian opposition has lately been reporting a growing presence of QF and IRGC-GF in the country, as trainers and combatants supporting the operations of the Syrian Army, the Hezbollah and other militant Shia groups against the opposition, including armed Sunni militants.

Photo: IRGC Brig. Gen. Abdullah Eskandari, reportedly captured and killed by Syrian militants. The undated photo was published in websites close to the Syrian opposition.

Nasrallah: Hezbollah Will Fight On in Syria

Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah said Sunday during a televised speech that his party would fight on in Syria.

“I will not repeat what I explained before about the reason we went to Syria and why we are staying where we should be,” Nasrallah said. (The Daily Star, 17 February)

Nasrallah warned that Sunni extremist groups posed a threat to the entire region and that all of Lebanon was a target.

“Lebanon is targeted by these takfiri groups and they would have come sooner or later regardless of our involvement in Syria,” he said, in an apparent response to his Lebanese critics that his military intervention in Syria has caused a rash of suicide bombing in Lebanon.

The Hezbollah chief, whose group has been fighting alongside the Assad's military and militias in Syria, warned that if extremists gain control of war-torn Syria, the repercussions would be felt throughout the Middle East.

Note: Nasrallah did not say what repercussions would be felt in Syria if Assad continues his rule. His defense of Hezbollah’s military intervention in Syria sounds more like an ideological argument that political. The Hezbollah, along with other extremist Shia militia groups, under the tutelage of Iran’s Quds Force, is seen as defenders of the Shia faith anywhere in the region, giving it the license to intervene militarily in foreign countries.

Nasrallah uses the word “takfiri” to lump all the opposition groups, including the moderates, under same category to justify Hezbollah’s assault on Sunni groups in general, an ideological justification very much like the anti-Communist ideology of a previous era to crush the democratic movements in many pro-Western countries.

File photo: Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut, November 2013. (Hassan Shaaban/The Daily Star)

Syrian Opposition Will Attend Geneva II

The Syrian National Coalition (SNC) announced today that it will attend next week’s Geneva II conference aimed at ending the country's bloody civil war. The SNC's General Assembly voted 58-15 in favor of attending the conference. The decision would bring the rebels face-to-face with the Syrian government representatives. (AP, 18 January)

Geneva II conference will open Wednesday in the Swiss city of Montreux.

Photo credit: SNC General Assembly, 18 January 2014. (AFP)