Claims of complicity irk Turkey after ISIL’s attack on Kobani

Explosions are captured, by a camera on the Turkish side of the border moments after car bombs detonate in the Kurdish town of Kobani in Syria. (Photo: DHA)

June 25, 2015, Thursday/ 18:26:42/ TODAY'S ZAMAN WITH WIRES / ISTANBUL

The unexpected and deadly attack of Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militants on Syria's Kobani early on Thursday unleashed a torrent of debate over how the fighters penetrated the town and whether they entered from Turkish territory, prompting Turkish officials to strongly deny such claims.

Although Ankara rebuffed claims of allegations that ISIL fighters came from Turkish territory in the strongest possible terms, prominent Kurdish politicians appeared to be doubtful with the official explanation and questioned the alleged role of the Turkish government in the latest attack on Kobani.

Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman Tanju Bilgiç called such allegations lies, denying reports of fighters crossing the Turkish border. Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmuş expressed dismay over the accusations, calling them a smear campaign against Turkey.

"Turkey has been on full alert from the first moment of the attack for wounded from Kobani and asylum seekers in need of humanitarian aid," he tweeted.

Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmuş also denied the claims, labeling them as “a part of efforts to portray Turkey side by side with a dark terrorist organization.” “We completely deny these claims. This is a dark manipulation and operation [against Turkey], he said.

Turkey's pro-Kurdish party described the ISIL attack on the Syrian border town of Kobani as a massacre and blamed it on Turkish state support for the militants, comments that will fuel tension in Ankara amid attempts to form a government.

"The whole world knows the Turkish government has supported ISIL for years. Today's massacre is a part of this support," said Figen Yüksekdağ, co-leader of the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP). "The remarks of Turkish politicians are null and void for us. It is up to the Turkish government to prove it does not support ISIL," she told reporters at a press conference in Ankara on Thursday.

"If this massacre took place without your support, then explain it, prove it. Otherwise our claims are valid," she added.

Challenging the Şanlıurfa governor's official statement, Yüksekdağ said it is implausible that ISIL militants came from Jarablus, to the west of Kobani, while Mürşitpınar is very close to Kobani.

The office of Şanlıurfa governor earlier in the day said in a statement that evidence showed the militants had entered Kobani from the Syrian town of Jarablus.

"Why have ISIL militants, on many occasions, easily slipped through the Turkish border, but not on this one when they attacked Kobani? It is unfathomable. We consider the possibility that they crossed the border [on this occasion]," Yüksekdağ said.

While Turkey is part of the US-led global anti-ISIL coalition, its Western allies voice resentment over what they say is Ankara's reluctance to take a more active part in the campaign against the militant group. Turkey's Western partners repeatedly call on Ankara to do more to curb Syria-bound fighters crossing its border to join ISIL.

Democratic Union Party (PYD) leader Salih Muslim also said all signs and findings reveal that ISIL fighters entered Kobani from Turkey. In the latest effort to seek to calm Turkey's jittery nerves over the creation of a separate Kurdish zone in northern Syria after Kurds' capture of Tel Abyad from ISIL, Muslim said again on Thursday that the PYD has no separatist agenda.

He said claims of ethnic cleansing by Kurds in Syria's north is an affront to them as Syrian Kurds are the ones who suffered most from such policies in the past.

The pro-Kurdish HDP entered Parliament for the first time after clearing a 10 percent threshold in the June 7 election.

Its success helped to deprive the governing Justice and Development Party (AK Party) founded by President Tayyip Erdoğan of a majority needed to form a single-party government for the first time in over a decade. The AK Party needs to find a coalition partner to form the government. The HDP success at election also sank Erdoğan's long-sought bid for an executive presidency as the AK Party was stripped of its majority in Parliament.

ISIL attacks Syrian government and Kurds in twin assault

ISIL fighters launched simultaneous attacks against the Syrian government and Kurdish militia overnight on Wednesday, moving back onto the offensive after losing ground in recent days to Kurdish-led forces near the capital of their "caliphate."

After recent losses to the Kurds backed by US-led air strikes, ISIL sought to retake the initiative with incursions into the Kurdish-held town of Kobani at the Turkish/Syria border and government-held areas of Hasaka city in the northeast.

In a separate offensive in the multi-sided Syrian civil war on Thursday, an alliance of rebels in the south of the country also launched an attack with the aim of driving government forces from the city of Deraa.

The attacks by ISIL follow a rapid advance by Kurdish-led forces deep into the hard-line group's territory, to within 50 kilometers (30 miles) of its de facto capital Raqqa, hailed as a success by Washington.

The United States and European and Arab allies have been bombing ISIL since last year to try to defeat ISIL, which a year ago proclaimed a caliphate to rule over all Muslims from territory in Syria and Iraq.

ISIL advanced rapidly last month, seizing cities in both Syria and Iraq. The latest Kurdish advance in Syria has shifted momentum back against the jihadists, but ISIL fighters have adopted a tactic of advancing elsewhere when they lose ground.

The group said it had seized the al-Nashwa district and neighboring areas in the southwest of Hasaka, a city divided into zones of government and Kurdish control. Government forces had withdrawn towards the city center, it said in a statement.

Syrian state TV said ISIL fighters were expelling residents from their homes in al-Nashwa, executing people and detaining them. Many ISIL fighters had been killed, it said, including one identified as a Tunisian leader.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which tracks the war, said ISIL had seized two districts from government control.

Thursday's separate ISIL attack on Kobani, also known as Ayn al-Arab, began with at least one car bomb in an area near the border crossing with Turkey, according to Kurdish officials and the Observatory. ISIL fighters were battling Kurdish forces in the town itself.

Kobani was the site of one of the biggest battles against ISIL last year. The Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) , backed by US air strikes, expelled the fighters in January after four months of fighting.

YPG spokesman Redur Xelil said Thursday's attackers had entered the town from the west in five cars, deceptively flying the flag of the Western-backed Free Syrian Army movement, which has fought alongside the YPG against ISIL.

"They opened fire randomly on everyone they found," he told Reuters.

A doctor in Kobani, Welat Omer, said 15 people had been killed and 70 wounded, many of them seriously. Some had lost limbs. Some of the wounded had been taken to Turkey.

Around 50 people fled to Kobani's Murşitpınar border gate with Turkey after the attack, seeking to cross the border, local witnesses said. Syrian state TV said the attackers had entered Kobani from Turkey -- a claim denied by the Turkish government.

ISIL militants also killed at least 20 Kurdish civilians in an attack on a village south of Kobani, the Observatory reported.

A Syrian official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media, said ISIL appeared to be trying to divert the focus of forces fighting it because of the pressure it was now under near Raqqa: "I believe this is why they moved to Hasaka -- because they felt great danger from the situation in Raqqa."

The Kurdish militia say they currently have no plan to march on Raqqa city.

ISIL storms Hasaka

ISIL militants in Syria stormed government-held neighborhoods in the predominantly Kurdish northeastern city of Hasaka on Thursday morning, capturing several areas of the city, officials and state media said.

The attack came after the ISIL group suffered several setbacks in northern Syria against Kurdish forces over the past weeks. The city of Hasaka is divided between Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's forces and Kurdish fighters.

Xelil said ISIL militants attacked government-held neighborhoods on the southern edge of Hasaka, and captured some areas.

Syrian state TV reported intense clashes inside Hasaka's southern neighborhood of Nashawi. According to the report, ISIL fighters killed several people they captured in the city, including the head of a military housing institution. It said the militants sustained many casualties, including the commander of the group who is a foreign fighter.

ISIL tried to storm the city earlier this month and reached its southern outskirts before facing strong resistance from Syrian government troops who pushed them away.

Keywords: Turkey , Syria , ISIL , YPG , Kobani , HDP , Hasaka