US airdrops 50-tons of ammunition for M-16s and AK-47 to Syrian fighters

US Military has airdropped 50 tons of supplies like ammunition for M-16s and AK-47s into Al-Hasakah province which is home to Syrian Kurds, Arabs and a minority Assyrian community. The items also included arms ammo and grenades. This is consequent to the shift in focus of Pentagon from training rebel fighters to equipping them.
This has been reported in foxnews.com dated 13 October 2015.

The airdrop of arms and ammunition comes two days after the Defense Department announced it was effectively ending its current training program. The airdrop was made by four C-17 transport aircraft and all the 112 pallets reached friendly forces.
It was done as had been done for Kobani which is considered to be one of the few bright spots in the war against the Islamic State. The arms dropped by the US to Syrian Kurdish fighters, known as the YPG, resulted in successfully expelling ISIS from the Turkish-Syrian border town of Kobani.
This time, however, Syrian Kurds were not recipients of the U.S. airdrop but only Syrian Arabs who were fighting ISIS. This is because Syrian Kurds are seen as enemies by Turkey whle the US looks upon them as a NATO ally.
(Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org)

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Fear mounts that ISIS have used chemical weapons against Kurds in Kobani

Doctors who are treating injured people of Kobani have discovered wounds that could have resulted from exposure to chemical weapons and there are fears that the ISIS have laid their hands on such weapons theguardian.com.

Patients who have arrived for treatment have blisters, complain of burning eyes apart from breathing difficulties – such symptoms are usually associated with chemical weapons. Moreover, the patients reported a bad smell which also produced allergic reaction.
It is believed that Islamic State (ISIS) have obtained stocks of ageing but still potent chemical weapons when it seized Iraqi army bases where they were stored. It seems in June, ISIS had taken control of a sprawling complex in the heart of Saddam Hussein’s chemical weapons program.

Moreover, there are doubts that chemical weapons might have been buried or abandoned elsewhere and had escaped the eyes of the watchdogs and were not destroyed by US forces or the Iraqi military.
Incidentally, stocks manufactured prior to 1991 are dirty, corroded and not always easy to identify or use, but are dangerous and can still cause serious injury.

US airdrops arms and ammunition to Kurds fighting to retain control of Kobani

The US has airdropped arms, ammunition and supplies to Kurds who are fighting to retain control of Kobani and ensure that the city does not fall into the hands of the Islamic State militants foxnews.com.

It seems C-130 cargo planes carried out a number of drops of arms and supplies provided by Kurdish authorities in Iraq and the intention was to enable the Kurds maintain continued resistance to Islamic State efforts to take full control of Kobani. The items have reached the Kurds and there was no resistance on the ground or in air from Syria.
The airdrops were of 27 bundles of small arms, ammunition and medical supplies and were the first of their kind. It came after weeks of U.S. and coalition airstrikes in and near Kobani. U.S. Central Command (CentCom) has revealed that it had launched 11 airstrikes overnight in the area.

The Turkish government had opposed any sort of assistance by the US to the Kurds because it views the Kurds as an enemy. Therefore, US President Barack Obama had called Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to discuss the situation in Syria and notify him of the plan to make airdrops.
The reaction of President Erdogan is not known.

Do the IS militants have access to chemical weapons?

The IS militants have proved by beheading of innocent US and British persons that they are a bloodthirsty lot and, it now seems that they have access to chemical weapons foxnews.com.

This is an inference that has been drawn from videos that depict dead people with wounds that would end indicate burning of facial muscles through contact with chemicals.
It is not yet established whether these have any link to the chemical weapons of ex-President Saddam Hussein of Iraq or of President Bashar al-Assad of Syria or whether the IS militants have made the weapons themselves by procuring the necessary chemicals.
The video show images of the dead Syrian Kurds with large areas of white, blistered skin apparently having been burned away. And, experts are of the opinion that the chemical weapons were used on July 12, in the village of Avidko, close to Kobani.

This is the Kurdish town on the Turkish border that is now the scene of fierce fighting between Kurds and Islamic State forces.

U S Military admits that airstrikes alone would not be able to rein in the IS militants

The US military has admitted that only airstrikes may not be sufficient to stop the advance of Islamic State fighters in Syria news.sky.com.

President Barack Obama met military commanders to discuss the campaign against IS in Syria and Iraq as there are apprehensions hat ground troops would also be needed on the ground. As Rear Adm Kirby has remarked, troops would be needed to defeat IS because the US does not have any force inside Syria with whom they could co-operate and work with. The President has admitted that while US strikes continue, alongside its partners, it continues to remain a difficult mission. It is not something that can be solved overnight.

US-led airstrikes have continued on Kobani. The IS militants have been fighting a fierce battle with Kurdish forces and, senior commanders have warned the Islamists could still take the strategic border town.
Incidentally, the US military's Central Command have revealed that American-led forces have carried out 14 coalition strikes on Wednesday and 19 bombing raids near Kobani since Tuesday, in an attempt to help Kurdish militia.
As informed by activists, the strikes killed at least 45 IS militants since Monday evening, forcing them to withdraw from some parts of the town.

There is crisis in the air as IS militants come to within 2-Km of Baghdad

The situation in the Middle East, especially in Iraq and Syria, keeps changing every minute and latest reports indicate that the IS militants are literally knocking at the doorsteps of Baghdad news.sky.com – within 2-Km as some reports mention.
Local residents are afraid to leave their houses and the roads are deserted in anticipation of imminent attacks and violence.
The revelations have been made by Canon Andrew White – in his words, the IS militants were reportedly only a mile away from the capital amid clashes with Iraqi soldiers. Moreover, there has also been renewed fighting in the central cities of Baquba and Ramadi.
The situation in Syria is no better – in spite of the recent coalition airstrikes, fighters from IS are believed to have come to within three miles of the strategic border town of Kobani.
Canon White is the vicar of St George's Church - the only Anglican Church in Iraq – and he has said that civilians were being killed by coalition air raids in Iraq.
He feels that that his church would be "very high up" on the extremist group's target list and he himself would be at the very top of the list.