Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Jets blast militants’ gas hub
Activists report 8 dead in coalition strike at Syria facility
MURSITPINAR, Turkey — A U.S.-led coalition airstrike on a gas distribution facility in a stronghold of the Islamic State group set off a series of secondary explosions and killed at least eight people in eastern Syria, activists said Saturday.
The airstrike targeted a distribution station in the town of Khasham in the oilrich province of Deir el-Zour late Friday, Deir el-Zour Free Radio, an activist collective, said on its Facebook page. The collective named four of those killed and said another four charred bodies were placed in a nearby mosque. It said the slain men were mostly fuel tanker drivers.
Another activist group, the Deir el-Zour Network, described “long tongues of flames” from the strike. The strike also was reported by the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which relies on a network of activists inside Syria.
The U.S.-led coalition has aggressively targeted Islamic State-held oil facilities in Syria, which provide a key source of income for the militants.
But such strikes also endanger civilians, which is seen as undermining long- term efforts to destroy the group.
Other airstrikes late Friday targeted oil wells in the Deir el-Zour province, the activists said.
There was no immediate comment by the U.S. military
The U. S.- led coalition began a bombing campaign against the Islamic State in Syria in late September after striking at the extremists in neighboring Iraq, where they also hold large portions of territory.
In recent days, much of the coalition’s strikes have focused around the Syrian border town of Kobani, also known as Ayn al-Arab, which Islamic State militants have been trying to seize since mid-September.
On Saturday, Islamic State militants fired a barrage of mortar rounds toward Kobani, focusing their efforts near the border crossing with Turkey. Some of the shells landed in Turkish territory, but did not cause any damage. As gun and mortar fire in the town echoed across the border, at least five coalition airstrikes sent plumes of black smoke into the sky.
Idriss Nassan, a senior Kobani official, said the airstrikes had helped halt the advance of the militants. But he said the Kurdish fighters defending Kobani would need more weapons and ammunition to save the town.
“Airstrikes are not enough,” Nassan said. “It’s reduced [the Islamic State], but it’s not enough to defeat them.”
Meanwhile, Syrian government airstrikes on a rebel-held town near Damascus killed at least 16 people late Friday as part of intensified efforts by government forces to secure approaches to the capital, activists said.
At least five strikes targeted the town of Douma on Friday evening, said local activist Hassan Taqulden and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which said the bombs killed at least three children and one woman.
An online video purportedly showing the aftermath of the strikes showed a bloodied little girl with a bandage around her head and a toddler on a hospital cot. The video appeared genuine and was consistent with reporting of the events.
Syrian state media said late Friday that government forces had attacked “terrorists” in Douma. The government routinely refers to rebels as terrorists, and does not acknowledge civilian casualties.
Rebel attacks also have killed scores of civilians, and activists say Syria’s threeyear civil war has killed more than 200,000 people.
IRAQI CABINET COMPLETE
Elsewhere in the Mid- dle East, Iraqi lawmakers approved Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi’s remaining Cabinet nominees Saturday, including for the defense and interior portfolios, completing the formation of a government that will strive to push the Islamic State out of the sprawling territory it has seized in recent months.
Control over the two powerful security ministries long has been a source of tension among Iraq’s feuding political factions. The U. S. and other allies have been pushing for a more representative government that can reach out to Sunnis, who felt marginalized by former Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. Sunni discontent is widely seen as having fueled the Islamic State’s dramatic advances in Iraq since June, when it captured the country’s second- largest city, Mosul.
Khaled al-Obeidi, a Sunni lawmaker from Mosul, was selected for the post of defense minister by a vote of 175-85. He had served as an officer in Saddam Hussein’s military and holds a doctorate in political science.
Mohammed Salem al-Ghabban, a Shiite lawmaker with al-Abadi’s State of Law political bloc, was approved as minister of the interior by a 197- 63 vote. He holds degrees from universities in both Tehran and London and he is currently pursuing a doctorate in political science in Baghdad. He was a longtime opponent of Saddam and was detained in 1979.
Hoshyar Zebari, a Kurdish politician and Iraq’s long-serving foreign minister, was named minister of finance, having previously been voted in as deputy prime minister. Shiite lawmaker Adel Fahd al-Shirshab was named tourism minister, and Kurdish lawmaker Bayan Nouri was appointed minister of women’s affairs.
Iraq is facing its worst crisis since the 2011 withdrawal of U.S. troops, with the Islamic State group in control of nearly a third of the country.
Iraq’s armed forces, trained and equipped by the U.S., collapsed in the face of the militants’ advance, abandoning heavy weapons that the extremist group is now using in battles across Iraq and Syria.
Many have blamed the army’s poor performance on al-Maliki, saying he replaced top officers with inexperienced or incompetent political allies in order to monopolize power. From 2010 until his resignation in August, al-Maliki had held both the interior and defense portfolios, in part because lawmakers could not agree on nominees for them.
Iraqi lawmakers expressed hope that the new government would help boost morale among troops in the field.
“I think that the security situation will improve after the selection of the two ministers, because now troops know that when they fight, the whole country and all the political blocs are supporting them,” said Rsoul Radhi, a Shiite lawmaker from al-Abadi’s bloc.
“All security and political efforts should now be directed toward retaking the territories held by Daesh,” he added, using an Arabic acronym for the Islamic State.
MEMORIAL FOR
AID WORKER
In addition to capturing territory across Iraq and Syria, the Islamic State also has aroused international outcry for the slayings in recent weeks of captive foreign aid workers and journalists.
On Saturday, the families of two British hostages killed by the extremist group urged people of all faiths to unite against the militants’ “hateful acts,” as hundreds celebrated the life of slain aid worker David Haines at a memorial service in his Scottish hometown.
His brother Michael Haines walked hand in hand to a church in the central Scotland city of Perth with Barbara Henning, whose husband Alan Henning was killed by the militants in Syria earlier this month.
Those attending were asked to wear bright colors, rather than black, in celebration of Haines’ life.
Speakers included Haines’ 17-year-old daughter Bethany, and music included the hymn “Amazing Grace” and the song “Going Home,” by Scottish band Runrig.
“Tears and laughter are sometimes not as far apart as we imagine, and they were both in church this afternoon,” said the Rev. Gordon Campbell, who led the service at Perth Congregational Church.
David Haines, a 44-yearold former air force engineer, was working for the ACTED agency helping refugees from the Syrian civil war when he was abducted in March 2013 near the Turkish border. A video of his killing was released last month.
Henning, a taxi driver from northwest England, was delivering aid when he was kidnapped in December.
Islamic State militants also have killed U.S. reporter James Foley and American-Israeli journalist Steven Sotloff, and threatened another American, Abdul-Rahman Kassig. The group also holds British photojournalist John Cantlie.
At a memorial service Saturday in the U.S., Foley’s friends said the New Hampshire man was a compassionate and capable journalist who tried to see the good in people.
Hundreds of people filled Our Lady of the Rosary Church on Saturday in Rochester, N.H., during a Mass to celebrate his life on what would have been his 41st birthday. Afterward, friends and family paid poignant tribute to Foley.
“There seemed to be two absolutes in Jim’s life — his faith and his family — both of which gave him an incredible foundation,” said longtime friend Jeremy Osgood. “It was a wealth of strength and courage for Jim in his time of need.”
Foley was abducted in Syria on Thanksgiving Day 2012 and hadn’t been heard from since until a video showing his killing was posted on the Internet in August. Members of the Islamic State said they killed him and other foreigners because of U.S. intervention in Iraq and Syria.