| New York Times | - |
In Damascus, President Bashar al-Assad of Syria
made a rare public appearance, joining prayers for the Eid al-Adha
holiday at the Numan Bin Bashir mosque in scenes broadcast on Syrian state television. His last public appearance was in July at the end ...
BEIRUT, Lebanon — Fighting continued Saturday across Syria,
with the militant group Islamic State assaulting a Kurdish enclave on
the Turkish border, American-led airstrikes hitting Islamic State
positions in northeastern Syria and Syrian government airstrikes
pounding other insurgents near Damascus, Syria’s capital.
Video
surfaced of Peter Kassig, an American medical worker held by the
Islamic State, in which the militants threatened that he would be the
next hostage to be killed. The beheadings of two American journalists helped to set off the expansion of American-led strikes on the Islamic State, also known as ISIS, from targets in Iraq to the militants’ positions in Syria.
In Damascus, President Bashar al-Assad
of Syria made a rare public appearance, joining prayers for the Eid
al-Adha holiday at the Numan Bin Bashir mosque in scenes broadcast on
Syrian state television. His last public appearance was in July at the
end of the Ramadan holiday.
Turkish
officials were weighing a ground intervention in Syria as Islamic State
militants shelled a Kurdish enclave on the border. The Syrian
government had warned on Friday that any military intervention on its
soil by Turkey would be considered an act of “aggression.”
Graphic
Amid Airstrikes Against ISIS, Refugees Flee Syria
A visual guide to the crisis in Iraq and Syria.
The warning came after Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said that Turkey would do whatever possible to prevent the Kurdish enclave of Kobani
from falling to the Islamic State militants. Kurds, though, are
suspicious of Turkish intentions. They have said that Turkey is the main
route for the passage of Islamic State militants into Syria and that
Turkey prefers the militants to the semiautonomous Kurdish area that has
evolved in the area during three years of chaos in Syria.
Near
Aleppo, Syria’s largest city, insurgents who are not part of the
Islamic State group were struggling to fight off a government offensive.
The Syrian Army on Friday moved into a village north of Aleppo long
held by the insurgents.
The
other insurgents, some of whom President Obama says he is counting on
as a ground force against the Islamic State militants in Syria, contend
that by striking the Islamic State but not Mr. Assad, the United States
is aiding the Syrian president in his effort to crush the revolt against him.
The
war in Syria began with political protests against Mr. Assad’s rule but
transformed into a civil war after government crackdowns on
demonstrators, as Mr. Assad’s opponents took up arms and the army
responded with heavy weapons. Jihadist groups arose, eventually paving
the way for the foreign-led Islamic State, which has seized large portions of Iraq and Syria.
The
Syrian government has focused on fighting insurgents who are not part
of the Islamic State group, part of what its opponents and some of its
supporters call a strategy to leave the West with a choice between
itself and the extremist Islamic State. But lately, Islamic State
fighters have routed government bases, increasing fears among Mr.
Assad’s base, and the government has increased airstrikes against the
militants.
While
the Syrian government says American attacks on its soil without
coordination are a violation of its sovereignty, some officials have
recently said that as long as the coalition led by the United States is
hitting the Islamic State, it is effectively helping the Syrian
government.
