LATEST: Two Lebanese Soldiers Defect & Join Jabhat al-Nusra

Islamic State fighters pushed farther into the Kurdish center of Kobane in northern Syria on Friday, taking the buildings of the local government and the main police station.

The jihadists now control about 40% of the town, according to Kurdish officials.

The Islamic State were held up for about 48 hours after entering the eastern side of Kobane, but having withstood US-led airstrikes near the town and resistance from Kurdish militias, they made a further push on Friday.

Ocalan Iso, the deputy head of the Kurdish forces, maintained that the jihadist attacks were being repelled, saying the Islamic State occupied no more than 20% of the town: “There are fierce clashes and they are bombing the centre of Kobane from afar.”

But a Kurdish fighter said by phone from Kobane, with the sound of heavy gunfire in the background:

We are killing them, and they keep coming. They are coming from the east of the city, and the west.

Today, they are coming powerfully.

Islamic State fighters on the streets of Kobane:

Claimed footage, from the Islamic State’s unofficial media channel, of destruction inside the town — the jihadists say it is from US airstrikes:

The UN envoy to Syria, Staffan da Mistura, warned that a mass killing of civilians could be imminent.

He said that 500 to 700 civilians, many of them elderly, were still in Kobane. Another 10,000 to 13,000 were near the town, on the Syrian side of the border with Turkey.

“We know what [the Islamic State are capable of doing”, the envoy said. “[Civilians] “will be most likely massacred.”

However, the vice chairman of Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party, Yasin Aktay, played down the threat as he said all of Kobane’s civilians had fled to Turkey.

“There is no tragedy in Kobane as cried out by the terrorist [Turkish Kurdish party] PKK,” Aktay insisted. “There is a war between two terrorist groups.”

Senior officials from the US and Turkey, divided over the response to the Islamic State’s offensive, met in both Ankara and Washington on Friday.

President Obama’s envoy for the campaign against the Islamic State, General John Allen, completed a two-day visit to Turkey. Accompanied by senior State Department official Brett McGurk, he met Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu; military leaders; and members of the Syrian opposition.

State Department deputy spokeswoman Marie Harf claimed progress, as “Turkey has agreed to support, train and equip efforts for the moderate Syrian opposition”.

However, Harf said nothing about the Turkish response to the US demand that Ankara send in ground forces, nor did she comment on Washington’s position about Ankara’s proposals for safe havens, no-fly zones, and a campaign against the Assad regime as well as the Islamic State.

She did confirm that a US military team will visit Turkey next week for further discussions.

In Washington, the head of Turkey’s intelligence services, Hakan Fidan, saw Deputy Secretary of State William Burns and President Obama’s counter-terrorism adviser Lisa Monaco.


Two Lebanese Soldiers Defect & Join Jabhat al-Nusra

The Islamist faction Jabhat al-Nusra announced on Friday that two more Lebanese soldiers have defected to the group.

Media reported on Friday night that Abdullah Ahmed Shehadeh, a member of the Fifth Intervention Regiment, had telephoned his family to announce his defection.

Earlier, Mohammed Antar, from the Rafik Hariri International Airport detachment, appeared on video:

I announce my defection from the Lebanese army which is supporting the tyrants and defending the ‘party of Satan’ [Hezbollah].

I have joined the ranks of the jihadists in al-Nusra Front, who are fighting…to defend the Sunni community.

In July, Corporal Atef Mohammed Saadeddine was the first Lebanese soldier to defect to Jabhat al-Nusra.