AFP, Baghdad :
Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, on Monday, called for a “tribal revolution” against the Islamic State group, in a sign of the importance Baghdad places on tribal resistance against the jihadists.
In a meeting with Suhaib al-Rawi, the newly elected Governor of embattled Anbar province, Abadi “stressed the need for a tribal revolution to rid the body of Iraqi society of this foreign enemy”, the Premier’s office said. He emphasized “the importance of the tribes and the sons of the province taking part in liberating their areas from the terrorist organizations”.
IS spearheaded a sweeping militant offensive last year that overran large parts of Iraq, including significant territory in Anbar which stretches from the borders with Syria, Jordan and Saudi Arabia to the western approach to Baghdad.
The support of Iraq’s powerful Sunni tribes is seen as essential to defeating IS, and tribal fighters- who are now being trained by Baghdad- have played a key role in keeping the jihadists from gaining further ground in Anbar.
Iraqi security forces wilted under the initial IS onslaught last June, but are now backed by US-led air strikes, international advisers, Shiite militiamen and Sunni tribes, and have begun to claw back some areas.
Meanwhile, Kurdish fighters advanced in the northern Syrian town of Kobani on Monday, capturing a vital zone housing government buildings after heavy fighting with Islamic State militants, a Kurdish official and an activist group said.
Kobani official Idriss Nassan and the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Syrian Kurdish forces captured the so-called security quarter, which houses the police headquarters and other government buildings.
The IS group stormed the security quarter on Oct. 10 but later lost parts of it in a Kurdish counteroffensive.
Kurdish fighters have been slowly advancing in Kobani with the support of Iraqi peshmerga forces. The U.S.-led coalition has also played a key role, carrying out waves of airstrikes against IS positions in and around the town.
The U.S. Central Command said eight airstrikes struck two large IS units and an IS fighting position in Kobani on Sunday. It added that the airstrikes destroyed 11 IS fighting positions.
Nassan and the Observatory said Syrian Kurdish fighters, known as the People’s Protection Units, or YPG, now control about 80 percent of the town. Nassan said IS fighters still control Kobani’s eastern neighborhoods of Maqtala and Kani Kordan.
“Hopefully within days the Units (YPG) will be control of the whole city,” Nassan said. “The advance has become faster and the airstrikes are more intense.”
