U.S.-led airstrikes continued this weekend in Syria and Iraq as the Islamist terror group ISIS is now poised to take a Syrian town and massacre the civilians in the area, a United Nations official warned.
The U.S. and its partners conducted a total of nine airstrikes on Saturday and Sunday, three of which targeted ISIS fighters in the Syrian Kurdish town of Kobani, the Defense Department said.
Sen. John McCain warned that the U.S. was losing ground against ISIS. “They’re winning and we’re not,” the Arizona Republican said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union”. “The Iraqis are not winning, The peshmerga, the Kurds are not winning,” he added.
The U.N. said on Friday that a civilian massacre in the mostly Kurdish town would likely happen if control of Kobani falls to ISIS fighters.
“If this falls, the 700, plus perhaps the 12,000 people, apart from the fighters, will be most likely massacred,” said U.N. envoy Staffan de Mistura.
Secretary of State John Kerry met with Jordan’s Foreign Minister on Sunday and discussed the military campaign against ISIS. Jordan is among the countries that have partnered with the U.S. to conduct the airstrikes.
“We are in the early stages of what is going to be, as President Obama has said, a long-term effort,” National Security Adviser Susan Rice said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” She added: “This is going to take time.”
Suzy Khimm