ISIS seizes weapons meant for Kurds

Baghdad restaurant bombs kill 21 Missing Sydney teen resurfaces in ISIS video

Beirut/ Turkey/ Baghdad/ Tehr an/ Sydney, Oct. 21: ISIS fighters seized at least one cache of weapons airdropped by US- led coalition forces that were meant to supply Kurdish militiamen battling the extremist group in a border town, activists said Tuesday.

The cache of weapons included hand grenades, ammunition and rocket- propelled grenade launchers, according to a video uploaded by a media group loyal to the Islamic State.

The video appeared authentic and corresponded to the reporting of the event. The Britain- based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the militants had seized at least once cache, but may have seized more.

While Kurdish fighters in the battleground Syrian town of Kobane weathered an onslaught by ISIS militants on Tuesday as they waited for promised reinforcements. Fighting continued in Kobane but appeared to have lessened after a fierce attack by ISIS fighters, including suicide bombers, late on Monday, witnesses and monitors said.

ISIS forces based in the east of the town were exchanging fire with Kurdish militia in the west and there were reports of an explosion, probably a car bomb, the Syrian Observatory group said.

A series of bombs targeting restaurants across Baghdad killed at least 21 people on Tuesday, the police and medics said.

The Iraqi capital has witnessed a surge in bombings over the past month, most claimed by ISIS militants who have overrun large parts of Iraq and neighbouring Syria.

Twelve people were killed in Baghdad’s northern Talibiya district when a car bomb blew up directly in front of a restaurant and another in the parking lot. A homemade bomb exploded close to a restaurant in Baghdad’s Sheikh Omar neighbourhood, killing 2 civilians, and two more blasts near restaurants in the south of the capital left a further seven people dead, the police and medical sources said.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar al- Abadi said Tuesday his country was at war with “terrorists” threatening the region and intent on dividing Muslims, as he met top officials in key ally Iran.

As mainly Shia neighbours, Iran and Iraq have been close since the ouster of Sunni dictator Saddam Hussein in the US- led invasion of 2003, with Tehran’s role becoming increasingly open in recent years.

The relationship has deepened militarily after the rapid offensive by ISIS fighters from Syria deep into Iraq this summer, which continues to pose a major threat to Baghdad. Mr Abadi, from Iraq’s Shia majority, met with President Hassan Rouhani and vice- president Eshaq Jahangiri during the one- day visit.

A teenager who ran away from Australia to join jihadists in Iraq and Syria has reappeared months later in a video of the ISIS, vowing to “not stop fighting”, reports said Tuesday.

The 17- year- old, named in local media as Abdullah Elmir but who calls himself “Abu Khaled”, carried a rifle and directly addressed Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott in the video reportedly posted online, the Sydney Morning Herald said.

“To Tony Abbott, I say this. These weapons that we have, these soldiers, we will not stop fighting,” said Elmir, whose family is from the southwestern Sydney suburb of Bankstown.

“We will not put down our weapons until we reach your lands and until we take the head of every tyrant,” he added.