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.

Syrian Air Force carries out 200 airstrikes in 36-hours in rebel-held areas

The situation in Syria appears to be hazy with the Syrian Air Force carrying out nearly 200 airstrikes on rebel positions in a period of 36-hours bbc.com. The strikes targeted rebel-held areas in Quneitra, Deraa, and the Damascus countryside, Hama, Idlib and Aleppo.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the raids took place mostly in western areas between midnight on Sunday and noon on Tuesday but could not provide any figure of casualties.
The intensified strikes by the Syrian Air Force comes even as US-led forces continue to bomb Islamic State (IS) militants in Syria and Iraq. The US and Arab jets have been attacking IS positions in around the northern Syrian town of Kobane, where Kurdish fighters are under siege.
Incidentally, the US had airdropped military aid for Kurds but, it seems, one of the packets have fallen into the hands of the IS and they have released a video of the same. This has been confirmed by a spokesman of the Pentagon – he has said that the vast majority of the bundles had ended up in the Kurds' hands but he was aware of one that had not.

Obama admits that there is no quick-fix solution to fight the IS militants

While speaking with military chiefs from more than 20 nations, President Barack Obama has admitted to setbacks in the war against the Islamic State with reference to the fierce fighting for control of a Syrian border town. Moreover, there appears to be fresh concerns over Turkey’s cooperation foxnews.com.

President Obama has made note of the negative developments in the fight against the Islamic State and has remarked that there would be days of progress as also “periods of setback” and that there are no “quick fixes.”
The relationship with Turkey is another problem because Turkey has gone in for airstrikes against Kurdish rebels inside its borders – this defies the pleas from the U.S. to instead focus on the Islamic State.

The U.S. has been wanting Turkey to take a more active role in the campaign to destroy the Islamic State group since the Islamic State group is an enemy that the Turkish government shares with the Kurds. But, Turkey’s stand is that it won't join the fight unless the U.S.-led coalition also targets the government of Syrian President Bashar Assad.