NEW YORK, October 15 (RIA Novosti) - The UN Security Council should help establish a ceasefire to prevent a massacre of Kurdish fighters, defending the north Syrian town of Kobani from Islamic State (IS) militants, said world-renowned academic and political thinker Noam Chomsky.
"With regard to Kobani, it is a shocking situation. This morning's newspaper described Turkish military operation against Kurds in Turkey, not against ISIS, a couple of kilometers across the border where they are in danger of being slaughtered. I think something should be done at the UN in terms of a strong resolution to call for a ceasefire," Chomsky told reporters at the UN headquarters on Tuesday.
"It is hard to impose the use of force, but to the extent that it can be done try and protect Kobani from destruction at the hands of ISIS, which could be a major massacre with enormous consequences," Chomsky said, adding that "the strategic significance of the town in the Kurdish region is pretty obvious, and the Turkish role is critical in this."
The IS, also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS) or the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), has been fighting the Syrian government since 2012. In June 2014, the extremist group expanded its attacks to northern and western Iraq and declared an Islamic caliphate on the territories that had fallen under its control.
For the past several weeks, Islamic State fighters have besieged Kobani, also known as Ayn al-Arab, one of the largest towns in the Kurdish region of Syria bordering Turkey. Over 550 people have died in clashes between IS and Kurdish fighters in the city, according to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The fighting has caused an estimated 180,000 residents of Kobani to flee across the border to Turkey.
A US-led coalition is currently carrying out airstrikes against Islamic State positions in Syria and Iraq. US President Barack Obama's anti-IS strategy also includes bolstering a ground force of Kurds, Iraqis and moderate elements of Syria's opposition.
