World

(MURSITPINAR, Turkey) — For the first time since the Islamic State group launched an offensive on the Syrian border town of Kobani last month, a small group of Syrian rebels on Wednesday entered the embattled town from Turkey in a push to help Kurdish fighters there battle the militants, activists and Kurdish officials said.

The group of around 50 armed men is from the Free Syrian Army, and it’s separate from Iraqi Kurdish peshmerga fighters who were also en route Wednesday to Kobani, along the Syrian-Turkish border.

Idriss Nassan, a Kurdish official from Kobani, said the FSA group entered Kobani through the Mursitpinar border crossing in Turkey. Nassan, who spoke from the border region in Turkey, said they travelled in cars but did not have more details.

The FSA is an umbrella group of mainstream rebels fighting to topple Syrian President Bashar Assad. The political leadership of the Western-backed FSA is based in Turkey, where fighters often seek respite from the fighting.

The 150 Iraqi peshmerga troops, along with cannons and heavy machine guns, arrived in Turkey from Iraq early Wednesday and were expected to cross into Syria later in the day. Their deployment came after Ankara agreed to allow the peshmerga troops to cross into Syria via Turkey.

Kurdish fighters in Syria, known as the People’s Protection Units or YPG, have been struggling to defend Kobani — also known as Ayn Arab — against the Islamic State group since mid-September, despite dozens of coalition airstrikes against the extremists.

It is not clear what impact this small but battle-hardened combined force of FSA and peshmerga fighters — and their combined weaponry and added arsenal — will have in the battle for Kobani. Kurdish fighters are already sharing information with the coalition to coordinate strikes against Islamic State militants there but the new force may help improve efforts and offer additional battlefield support.

Hundreds of people gathered in a square and along a main street in the Turkish town of Suruc, near the border with Syria, waiting for the peshmerga.

“We are waiting for the peshmerga. We want to see what weapons they have,” said Nidal Attur, 30, from a small village near Kobani who arrived in Suruc two weeks ago. “I am very happy. We are hoping the peshmerga will do good things for us. … We cannot win without the peshmerga because ISIS have big weapons, big guns and rockets.”

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told the BBC that sending the peshmerga and the FSA was “the only way to help Kobani, since other countries don’t want to use ground troops.”

A Kurdish journalist in Kobani and the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights confirmed that a group of about 50 FSA fighters entered Kobani on Wednesday.

After a rousing send-off from thousands of cheering, flag-waving supporters in the Iraqi Kurdish capital of Irbil, the peshmerga forces landed early Wednesday at the Sanliurfa airport in southeastern Turkey. They left the airport in buses escorted by Turkish security forces and were expected to travel to Kobani also through Mursitpinar crossing.

Nassan said the peshmerga force should be in Kobani “within hours.” He said he was confident that the troops, although symbolic in number, would help change the balance of power in Kobani because of their advanced weapons.

The Islamic State group launched its offensive on Kobani and nearby Syrian villages in mid-September, killing more than 800 people, activists say. The Sunni extremists captured dozens of Kurdish villages around Kobani and control parts of the town. More than 200,000 people have fled across the border into Turkey.

The U.S. is leading a coalition that has carried out dozens of airstrikes targeting the militants in and around Kobani, helping stall their advances. U.S. Central Command said eight American-led airstrikes struck near Kobani on Tuesday and Wednesday.

The fighting in Kobani has deadlocked in recent days, with neither side able to get the upper hand in the battle.

Under pressure to take greater action against the IS militants — from the West as well as from Kurds inside Turkey and Syria — the Turkish government agreed to let the fighters cross through its territory. But it only is allowing the peshmerga forces from Iraq, with whom it has a good relationship, and not those from the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK.

Turkey’s government views the Syrian Kurds defending Kobani as loyal to what Ankara regards as an extension of the PKK. That group has waged a 30-year insurgency in Turkey and is designated a terrorist group by the U.S. and NATO.

Kurdish fighters in Syria have repeatedly said they did not need more fighters, only weapons. Kurds in Syria are mistrustful of Turkey’s intentions, accusing it of blocking assistance to the Kobani defenders for weeks before shifting its stance, apparently under pressure. Many suspect Ankara is trying to dilute YPG influence in the town by sending in the peshmerga and the Turkey-backed FSA.

The battle for Kobani is a small part in a larger war in Syria that has claimed the lives of more than 200,000 people since March 2011, according to activists. The conflict began with largely peaceful protests calling for reform. It eventually spiraled into a civil war as people took up arms following a brutal military crackdown on the protest movement.

Fighting continued Wednesday across many parts of Syria.

At least 10 civilians were killed when army helicopters dropped two barrel bombs that landed at a makeshift refugee camp in the northern Idlib province, opposition activists said.

A video posted online by activists showed bodies scattered among torn tents in a wooded area and civil defense workers gathering body parts and wrapping them in blankets.

Elsewhere, the Observatory said in a statement that more than 30 Syrian soldiers and allied militiamen and guards were killed in clashes with Islamic State militants who attacked the government-controlled Shaer gas field in the central Homs province. State-run news media reported “fierce clashes” in the area, saying troops killed and wounded dozens of “terrorists.”

Both reports could not be independently confirmed.

Also Wednesday, a car bomb exploded in a government-held district of Homs city, killing at least one person and wounding 25 others, an official in the Homs governorate said.

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Karam reported from Beirut. Associated Press writers Albert Aji and Diaa Hadid contributed from Damascus, Syria.

(WASHINGTON) — Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel on Wednesday approved a recommendation by military leaders that all U.S. troops returning from Ebola response missions in West Africa be kept in supervised isolation for 21 days.

The move goes beyond precautions recommended by the Obama administration for civilians, although President Barack Obama has made clear he feels the military’s situation is different from that of civilians, in part because troops are not in West Africa by choice.

Hagel said he acted in response to a recommendation sent to him Tuesday by Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, on behalf of the heads of each of the military services. They cited numerous factors, including concerns among military families and the communities from which troops are deploying for the Ebola response mission.

Just over 1,000 U.S. troops are in Liberia and Senegal supporting efforts to combat the virus.

Hagel also directed the Joint Chiefs to provide him within 15 days a detailed implementation plan for how the supervised isolation of troops will be applied.

He also ordered the chiefs to conduct with 45 days a review of this new regimen, which Hagel called “controlled monitoring.”

“This review will offer a recommendation on whether or not such controlled monitoring should continue based on what we learn and observe from the initial waves of personnel returning from Operation United Assistance,” Hagel’s spokesman, Rear Adm. John Kirby, said in a written statement, using the official name of the military mission against Ebola in Africa.

“The secretary believes these initial steps are prudent given the large number of military personnel transiting from their home base and West Africa and the unique logistical demands and impact this deployment has on the force,” Kirby added. “The secretary’s highest priority is the safety and security of our men and women in uniform and their families.”

The Army, acting on its own, put a small number of returning soldiers on a 21-day quarantine in Italy earlier this week.

Guy Scott became Zambia's interim president on Wednesday

A U.K.-educated economist became Africa’s first white leader in 20 years on Wednesday, the day after Zambia’s president died in London.

Guy Scott, who was previously vice president, assumed the role after President Michael Sata died Tuesday at age 77, the Telegraph reports. Scott, 70, who is popular in Zambia and helped steer the country out of a food crisis in the early 1990s, is expected serve for 90 days until a new election.

He called the promotion “a bit of a shock to the system” but added “I’m very proud to be entrusted with it.”

Before Scott, Africa’s most recent white leader was South Africa’s F.W. de Klerk, who stepped down in 1994.

[The Telegraph]

(LUSAKA, Zambia) — Zambian leader Michael Sata, a longtime opposition leader who was finally elected president in 2011, died after an illness, the Zambian government said Wednesday. The Cabinet held a meeting to discuss a political transition, which would include elections within 90 days in the southern African nation.

Sata died shortly after 11 p.m. on Tuesday at London’s King Edward VII hospital, where he was being treated, Cabinet secretary Roland Msiska said in a statement.

Sata’s wife, Christine Kaseba, and his son, Mulenga Sata, were at the 77-year-old president’s side when he died, Msiska said. Mulenga Sata is the mayor of the Zambian capital, Lusaka.

“I urge all of you to remain calm, united and peaceful during this very difficult period,” Msiska said in an appeal to Zambians.

The Cabinet discussed plans for a political handover, a Zambian official said. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the media. Article 38 of the Zambian constitution requires that presidential elections be held within 90 days of the president’s death.

Defense Minister Edgar Lungu was appointed acting president when Sata traveled to London earlier this month. The vice president is Guy Scott, a white Zambian whose appointment in 2011 caused a stir in Zambia. Scott previously held the post of agriculture minister, and has also worked in Zambia’s finance ministry.

Rumors that Sata was deathly ill had gripped Zambia since the leader largely dropped out of public view months ago, and opposition groups had questioned whether Sata was fit to lead a country of 15 million people that has enjoyed robust economic growth but suffers widespread poverty.

On Sept. 19, Sata delivered an address at the opening of parliament in Lusaka, poking fun at speculation about his failing health.

“I haven’t died yet,” the Zambian president said at the time.

Following that appearance, Sata failed to give a scheduled address at the United Nations in New York and police said doctors treated him in a hotel room.

Earlier this year, Sata traveled to Israel amid widespread speculation that he went there for medical treatment. On Oct. 20, the Zambian government said Sata had left for a “medical check-up abroad,” without mentioning that he had gone to London.

Sata has been called “Mr. King Cobra” for his sharp-tongued remarks. He has had a mixed relationship with Chinese investors in Zambian mines and other infrastructure, criticizing them as exploitative but toning down his rhetoric after taking office.

Some critics say Sata became increasingly intolerant in the presidency. An opposition leader, Frank Bwalya, was acquitted this year of defamation charges after he compared Sata to a local potato whose name is slang for someone who doesn’t listen.

Sata had been a perennial opposition leader, losing three presidential votes. He finally broke the jinx to become Zambia’s fifth president in 2011. He also has served in previous governments, and was a member of every major party.

Sata was born in Mpika in what was then northern Rhodesia, and worked as a police officer under colonial rule and a trade unionist before becoming a politician in 1963. He also trained as a pilot in Russia.

After independence from Britain in 1964, he joined Kenneth Kaunda’s United National Independent Party, becoming governor of Lusaka, a city as well as a province, in 1985.

He resigned from Kaunda’s party in 1991 and joined the newly formed Movement for Multiparty Democracy, later serving as a party lawmaker for 10 years and as minister for local government, labor and social security, and health.

In 2001, he left to form his Patriotic Front party. Five years later, Sata was arrested for allegedly making false property claims. He faced at least two years in prison and a ban from politics. The charges were later dropped.

In 2008, he suffered a stroke and went to South Africa for treatment. The same year, President Levy Mwanawasa died following a stroke and a special election held later saw Sata narrowly losing to Rupiah Banda, who had been Mwanawasa’s vice president.

Sata and his wife, Kaseba, had eight children.

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Torchia contributed to this report from Johannesburg.

Most of Sri Lanka has seen heavy rain over the past few weeks, and the Disaster Management Center had issued warnings for mudslides and falling rocks

(COLOMBO, SRI LANKA) — A mudslide triggered by monsoon rains buried scores of workers’ houses at a tea estate in central Sri Lanka on Wednesday, killing at least 10 people and leaving more than 250 missing, officials said.

The mudslide struck at around 7:30 a.m. and wiped out 120 workers’ homes at the Meeriabedda tea estate in Badulla district, 218 kilometers (135 miles) east of the capital, Colombo, said Lal Sarath Kumara, an official from the Disaster Management Center.

By early afternoon, rescue workers had pulled out 10 bodies that had been buried by the mudslide, Kumara said. More than 250 other people were missing, he said.

The military mobilized troops to help in the rescue operations.

Most of Sri Lanka has seen heavy rain over the past few weeks, and the Disaster Management Center had issued warnings for mudslides and falling rocks.

The current monsoon season in the Indian Ocean island nation runs from October through December.

Sri Lanka’s famous Ceylon tea is produced mainly in the country’s central hills.