MURSITPINAR, Turkey // Kurdish fighters supported by US-led airstrikes held back ISIL fighters attacking a Syrian border town on Saturday, following an international outcry at the murder of a British hostage by the militant group and the threat to kill a captured US aid worker.
Dozens of ISIL militants – who have seized large parts of Syria and Iraq – were reported killed in the latest coalition raids.
The dusty Syrian town of Kobani on the Turkish border has become a key battleground between ISIL and its opponents, who include Kurdish fighters as well as the United States and its allies.
The US military said four airstrikes hit the Kobani area overnight.
Fighting raged on Saturday as militants attempted to seize a strategic hilltop that would give them access to the town, activists said.
Mortar rounds pounded the town as smoke rose above it, witnesses on the Turkish side of the border said.
Sebahat Tuncel, a Kurdish member of Turkey’s parliament, told told reporters after visiting Kobani: “The resistance is continuing. The danger has not yet been overcome.”
Five militants were killed in US air raids near the town, as well as 30 more around Shadadi in north-eastern Syria, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
ISIL militants fired at least 80 mortar rounds on Friday into Kobani, which is also known as Ain Al Arab.
The fighting killed at least 10 Kurdish militia members, said the Britain-based Observatory, which monitors the conflict.
But activist Mustafa Ebdi said Kurdish fighters had been buoyed by their success at holding off the assault so far, noting that the militants had hoped to capture the town by Saturday for the Muslim Eid Al Adha festival.
“So far they have failed to enter the town,” Mr Ebdi said.
ISIL began its advance towards Kobani on September 16, seeking to cement its grip over a long stretch of the border.
It has prompted a mass exodus of residents from the town and the surrounding countryside, with some 186,000 fleeing into Turkey.
Syrian state media also reported coalition strikes on Saturday in Al Quriyah in the eastern province of Deir Ezzor, with a tank destroyed.
In neighbouring Iraq, unidentified gunmen killed 10 soldiers and Shiite allied militiamen in two separate attacks in Diyala province north-east of the capital Baghdad.
American bombers and fighter jets also carried out five airstrikes against ISIL in Iraq, the US military said.
As the fighting raged, the famiy of the captured American aid worker Peter Kassig made a desperate videotaped plea for his release after he appeared on Friday being threatened by a knife-wielding militant in an ISIL video showing the execution of Alan Henning, a 47-year-old British volunteer driver who went to Syria with a Muslim charity.
“We implore his captors to show mercy and use their power to let our son go,” Ed Kassig said, referring to his 26-year-old son by his adopted Islamic name of Abdul Rahman.
Ed Kassig said his son was taken captive on October 1, 2013, when he was providing aid for refugees fleeing the country’s civil war through an organisation he founded.
A masked militant in the ISIL video directly addressed British prime minister David Cameron, who has sent RAF bombers to strike militants in Iraq as part of the US-led alliance.
“The blood of David Haines was on your hands, Cameron,” he said, referring to another British aid worker killed by the group.
“Alan Henning will also be slaughtered, but his blood is on the hands of the British parliament,” he declared.
In Britain, Henning’s family paid tribute to the “decent, caring human being” who was a husband and father of two.
British Muslims condemned his killing.
“Alan Henning was our local and national hero,” said Imam Asim Hussain of Manchester Central Mosque.
Mr Cameron said the killing “shows just how barbaric and repulsive these terrorists are”, a condemnation echoed by the European Union and the UN Security Council.
US president Barack Obama denounced the “brutal murder” and vowed decisive action against ISIL.
Washington is leading a coalition of nations against the militant organisation, which has declared an Islamic “caliphate” in parts of Syria and Iraq.
British police are also investigating video footage of an unmasked ISIL fighter, speaking with a British accent and identified by the SITE monitoring group as Abu Saeed al-Britani, railing against Cameron over British airstrikes on Iraq.
Meanwhile, Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan angrily rejected comments by US vice president Joe Biden that Turkey and others in the region had financed and armed militant organisations in Syria.
* Agence France-Press
A MINECRAFT MOVIE
Director: Jared Hess
Starring: Jack Black, Jennifer Coolidge, Jason Momoa
Rating: 3/5
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The rules on fostering in the UAE
A foster couple or family must:
- be Muslim, Emirati and be residing in the UAE
- not be younger than 25 years old
- not have been convicted of offences or crimes involving moral turpitude
- be free of infectious diseases or psychological and mental disorders
- have the ability to support its members and the foster child financially
- undertake to treat and raise the child in a proper manner and take care of his or her health and well-being
- A single, divorced or widowed Muslim Emirati female, residing in the UAE may apply to foster a child if she is at least 30 years old and able to support the child financially
NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
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Killing of Qassem Suleimani
The specs
Engine: Dual 180kW and 300kW front and rear motors
Power: 480kW
Torque: 850Nm
Transmission: Single-speed automatic
Price: From Dh359,900 ($98,000)
On sale: Now
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
Brief scoreline:
Wales 1
James 5'
Slovakia 0
Man of the Match: Dan James (Wales)
Indoor cricket in a nutshell
Indoor Cricket World Cup – Sep 16-20, Insportz, Dubai
16 Indoor cricket matches are 16 overs per side
8 There are eight players per team
9 There have been nine Indoor Cricket World Cups for men. Australia have won every one.
5 Five runs are deducted from the score when a wickets falls
4 Batsmen bat in pairs, facing four overs per partnership
Scoring In indoor cricket, runs are scored by way of both physical and bonus runs. Physical runs are scored by both batsmen completing a run from one crease to the other. Bonus runs are scored when the ball hits a net in different zones, but only when at least one physical run is score.
Zones
A Front net, behind the striker and wicketkeeper: 0 runs
B Side nets, between the striker and halfway down the pitch: 1 run
C Side nets between halfway and the bowlers end: 2 runs
D Back net: 4 runs on the bounce, 6 runs on the full
The National Archives, Abu Dhabi
Founded over 50 years ago, the National Archives collects valuable historical material relating to the UAE, and is the oldest and richest archive relating to the Arabian Gulf.
Much of the material can be viewed on line at the Arabian Gulf Digital Archive - https://www.agda.ae/en
ESSENTIALS
The flights
Fly Etihad or Emirates from the UAE to Moscow from 2,763 return per person return including taxes.
Where to stay
Trips on the Golden Eagle Trans-Siberian cost from US$16,995 (Dh62,414) per person, based on two sharing.
Mobile phone packages comparison
Company profile
Date started: 2015
Founder: John Tsioris and Ioanna Angelidaki
Based: Dubai
Sector: Online grocery delivery
Staff: 200
Funding: Undisclosed, but investors include the Jabbar Internet Group and Venture Friends
