LATEST: Syrian Kurdistan Calls on All Kurds to Defend Kobane Against Islamic State

SUNDAY FEATURE

Video: “Caught Between Assad & the Islamic State”

The United Nations has said that 6.6 million children in and near Syria need aid because of the 40-month crisis.

The estimate is a sharp rise from the total of 4.6 million in June 2013.

At the same time, the UN children’s agency UNICEF said it has received only 37% of the $770 million that it needs until the end of 2013 for Syrian children who are inside the country or living as refugees.

Of Syria’s pre-conflict population of 22 million, almost half — 10.9 million — need humanitarian aid inside the country, according to the UN. Of those, 5.1 million are children.

Another 2.9 million Syrians, half of them children, are refugees. The UN expects the number to rise to 3.6 million by the end of the year.

On Friday, the head of the UN’s refugee agency, Antonio Guterres, presented a revised plan and urged donors to give the rest of the $3.74 billion needed this year.

So far, the UN has received only $1.1 billion of the funds.


Syrian Kurdistan Calls on All Kurds to Defend Kobane Against Islamic State

The Kurdish Communities Union (KCK) has called on Kurds across Turkey, Syria, Iraq, and Iran to help defend the Syrian Kurdistan (Rojava) town of Kobane against the Islamic State.

Having advanced through eastern Syria in the past month — as well as across the border in Iraq — the Islamic State is now attacking Kobane, a key center of Syrian Kurds.

Both ISIS and Kurds have claimed inflicting dozens of casualties on the other side.

The KCK said:

We call on primarily the patriotic youth in North Kurdistan, the revolutionary youth in South and East Kurdistan and Rojava and all our people to strongly respond to the call for general mobilisation made by the Kobane Canton and to mobilise en masse.

“In a period in which ISIS has increased its attacks and in which it is of the utmost importance to protect the gains of the Kurds, no organisation, person or segment of society calling themselves Kurds and patriots and claiming to be against the ISIS can remain silent and must take a clear stance….

Our people will notice those forces who refrain from doing this and will suspect their Kurdishness and patriotism.

Our people in Rojava and Kobane are not alone. We greet once again the honourable resistance of the people of Kobane and declare our support for their resistance. We call on primarily the patriotic youth in North Kurdistan, the revolutionary youth in South and East Kurdistan and Rojava and all our people to strongly respond to the call for general mobilisation made by the Kobane Canton and to mobilise en masse.”