UN warns of massacre if militants take town

Associated Press

MURSITPINAR, Turkey

In a dramatic appeal, a U.N. official warned that hundreds of civilians who remain trapped in the Syrian Kurdish town of Kobani near the border with Turkey were likely to be “massacred” by advancing extremists and called on Ankara to help prevent a catastrophe.

Staffan de Mistura, the U.N. Syria envoy, raised the specter of some of the worst genocides of the 20th century during a news conference in Geneva to underscore concerns as the Islamic State group pushed into Kobani from the south and east.

“You remember Srebrenica? We do. We never forgot. And probably we never forgave ourselves for that,” he said, referring to the 1995 slaughter of thousands of Muslims by Bosnian Serb forces.

He spoke to reporters at a press conference in Geneva where he held up a map of Kobani and said a U.N. analysis shows only a small corridor remains open for people to enter or flee the town.

His warning came as the Islamic State group seized the so-called “Kurdish security quarter” — an area where Kurdish militiamen who are struggling to defend the town maintain security buildings and where the police station, the municipality and other local government offices are located.

The onslaught by the Islamic State group on Kobani, which began in mid-September, has forced more than 200,000 to flee across the border into Turkey. Activists say the fighting already has killed more than 500 people.

De Mistura said there were 500 to 700 elderly people and other civilians still trapped there while 10,000 to 13,000 remain stuck in an area nearby, close to the border.

“The city is in danger,” said Farhad Shami, a Kurdish activist in Kobani reached by phone from Beirut. He reported heavy fighting on the town’s southern and eastern sides and said the Islamic State group was bringing in more reinforcements.