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U.S. NEWSTuesday 2 February 2016
U.S. official visits northern Syrian town of Kobani

SUSANNAH GEORGE coalition countries fighting the Islamic State.
BRADLEY KLAPPER McGurk said he met a “diverse array” of Arabs, Kurds, Christians and Turkmen in northern Syria, as part of a long-planned trip aimed
Associated Press at assessing the ground campaign In this Dec. 9, 2015 file photo, President Barack Obama’s envoy to the U.S.-led coalition against
BAGHDAD (AP) — Presi- the Islamic State, Brett McGurk speaks to reporters during a news conference at the U.S. Embassy in the heavily fortified Green Zone
dent Barack Obama’s en- in Baghdad, Iraq.
voy to the U.S.-led coalition
fighting the Islamic State Associated Press
group said he visited north-
ern Syria over the week- said, “the place is com- bani, Tikrit, Ramadi, and cording plumes of smoke licopter in the Rmeilan air
end to review the ongoing ing back to life.” He said soon Raqqa and Mosul,” rising from explosions as the base in northeastern Syria.
fight against the extremist he saw markets open and he posted. U.S.-led coalition pounded Activists have reported that
group, marking the first visit residents showing their resil- The battle for the Syr- IS hideouts inside the town. the Obama administration
by a senior administration ience. At a hospital, he also ian border town of Kobani The militants were ultimate- has recently been working
official to Syria since the visited fighters wounded in was a watershed in the ly expelled from the town in on expanding the air base
beginning of the U.S.-led a recent offensive against war against the Islamic January 2015. in Rmeilan village to serve
campaign against IS in Au- the Islamic State. State group. Syrian Kurdish as a military base for U.S.
gust 2014. McGurk said he had other forces fought the militants It was the Islamic State forces in northern Syria.
A coalition official said meetings in northern Syria, in rubble-strewn streets group’s bloodiest defeat to Nasser Haj Mansour, a
Brett McGurk was joined but declined to describe for months as U.S. aircraft date in Syria but the town Kurdish defense official in
by British and French offi- those. pounded the extremists was almost completely de- Syria, also told the AP re-
cials in Kobani, where Kurd- McGurk, in a series of from the skies. stroyed. cently that U.S. personnel
ish forces aided by U.S.-led tweets, added that he paid The town became the cen- The Britain-based Syr- were renovating some air-
airstrikes drove back IS mili- his respects to over 1,000 terpiece of the campaign ian Observatory for Human strips built years ago by the
tants a year ago, handing Kurdish martyrs who died in against IS as dozens of TV Rights, an opposition group Syrian government for small
the extremists one of their the Kobani battle. crews flocked to the Turkish that monitors the conflict, aircraft in case they are
biggest defeats. He was “ISIL terrorists do not stand side of the border and from also reported the visit by needed in the future.
also accompanied by U.S. a chance in the face of a hill, trained their cameras McGurk took place over U.S. officials have not con-
Lt. Gen. Raymond “Tony” the resilient people of Ko- on the besieged town, re- the weekend. It said the firmed the reports.q
Thomas, the head of U.S. delegation landed by he-
Joint Special Operations
Command, and Marcel
Lettre, the U.S. defense
undersecretary for intelli-
gence.
The coalition official spoke
to The Associated Press on
condition of anonymity be-
cause he was not autho-
rized to brief media.
“Nothing substitutes for
having eyes-on, face-to-
face conversations on the
ground,” McGurk told re-
porters after flying from
Iraq to Rome for a meeting
of the against IS.
He described a moving
tour of Kobani where the
Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga
were based amid the bat-
tle. In the center of the city,
he said, it was “just incred-
ible devastation.”
“We learned from those
clearing the rubble that
they’re still finding (IS) fight-
ers,” McGurk said, saying
6,000 were killed in the
fighting.
But outside the center, he