MESOP : President Obama Takes Credit for Tel Abyad and Kobani / The 62-member coalition the President Obama has built, is a recipe for success

Basnews – 19.06.2015 – WASHINGTON – The White House took direct credit for the recent advances of the Syrian Kurds against the Islamic State, and the advances of Iraqi forces in Tikrit.“The one that this more recent success is actually a direct consequence of an earlier military operation [in Kobani] that President Obama ordered,” White House press secretary Josh Earnest said last Wednesday. “The city of Kobani in northern Syria was under siege by ISIL forces and there was a grave risk it could be taken.”

The People’s Defence Units (YPG) captured the town of Tel Abyad known as Gire Spi on the 15th of June, while liberating the town of Kobani from IS extremists in January. “But because of the President’s decision to order the airdrop of significant resources and equipment and reinforcements, and because we were able to work with Turkey to allow for additional forces to enter that city, we saw the coalition — and they were backed by coalition airstrikes, of course — we saw that anti-ISIL forces were able to drive ISIL out of Kobani.”

“And over the last several months, those forces have steadily driven east across northern Syria. And months later, they now have succeeded in — again, according to reports — they’ve made important progress in retaking Tel Abyad,” he added.

According to the White House, the success of local forces against the IS, backed by the 62-member coalition the President Obama has built, is a recipe for success. However, he failed to answer the question, if the coalition would move to directly arm Kurds in Syria and Iraq.

The operation in Tel Abyad, cut one of IS’s primary supply routes to the IS’s self-proclaimed capital in Raqqah. “We know that this could lead to a major disruption of ISIL’s flow of foreign fighters, illicit goods, and other illegal activity into northern Syria and into Iraq. So we continue to monitor the situation on the ground, but we have seen that anti-ISIL forces have taken the majority of the city of Tel Abyad.” However, the White House spokesperson also said, that its necessary for anti-IS forces make concerted efforts to protect local populations and property, and secure the human rights of all citizens, which follows allegations of human rights abuses in Tel Abyad. “This is essential to holding and stabilizing territory that’s been recaptured from ISIL. And that’s a message that we’ve obviously delivered in public, but it’s one that we continue to deliver to all of our partners as well.”