U.N. official fears massacre in Syrian town

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 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 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 has already 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 Islamic State was bringing in more reinforcements.

U.S.-led airstrikes against the extremists appear to have failed to blunt the militants' push on Kobani. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that with the new advances, Islamic State was now in control of 40 percent of the town.

The U.S. Central Command said in a statement that the U.S.-led coalition conducted nine airstrikes in Syria on Thursday and Friday. It said strikes near Kobani destroyed two Islamic State training facilities, as well as vehicles and tanks.

On Friday, the militants shelled Kobani's single border crossing with Turkey in an effort to capture it and seal off the town, a Kurdish official and Syrian activists said.

The official, Idriss Nassan, said Islamic State fighters aim to seize the crossing in order to close the noose around the town's Kurdish defenders and prevent anyone from entering or leaving Kobani.

Gunfire and explosions that appeared to be rocket-propelled grenades and mortar shells could be heard from across the border in Turkey, and plumes of smoke were seen in the distance. The Observatory said the militants shelled several areas in Kobani, including the border crossing.

In Geneva, de Mistura invoked the genocides in Srebrenica and Rwanda in 1994 in his appeal.

The civilians of Kobani "will be most likely massacred," said the Italian-Swedish diplomat, who was appointed to the U.N. post in July. "When there is an imminent threat to civilians, we cannot, we should not be silent."

De Mistura appealed to Turkish authorities to allow volunteers and equipment to flow into Kobani. "We need that because otherwise all of us, including Turkey, will be regretting deeply that we have missed an opportunity," he said.