Barzani condemns jihadist besieging of Syrian-Kurdish city, pleads for International help

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (K24) – The Presidency of Kurdistan Region of Iraq officially condemned on Monday the ongoing siege and attack by Islamist groups on the Kurdish region and city of Afrin in Rojava (Syrian Kurdistan).

A statement released online on the website of the Kurdistan Region's President Masoud Barzani's office said the Kurdish presidency "condemns in the strongest terms the savage and repulsive attacks on our sisters and brothers in Afrin" and that it is under a "harsh economic and military siege by the extremist groups like al Nusra Front and others."

Afrin is a town of 30,000 people some 60 kilometers north of the second-largest Syrian city of Aleppo, in northwest Syria. The city and its more than 300 surrounding villages make up the self-declared Canton of Afrin that remains outside of the otherwise contiguous Kurdish control under the auspices of the Democratic Union Party (PYD), from Kobani to Hasaka along the Syrian-Turkish border.

Surrounded by Turkey to its north and west, Afrin regularly comes under attack from the south and east in Aleppo province of Syria where Al-Qaida's Syria franchise, al-Nusra Front, Ahrar al-Sham, and other Islamist groups operate.

The Kurdistan Region's Presidency office statement continued, "...the lack of food and medicine adds to our concerns regarding the worsening humanitarian situation [in Afrin]." The statement added that jihadist groups attack with mortars and such attacks come "at a time when the international community is trying to solve the Syrian crisis through political means."

The Kurdish presidency called upon the international community to help lift the siege on Afrin and its resilient people and also demanded a humanitarian corridor to be opened for transportation of basic necessities such as food and medicine.

In another press release, the Kurdistan Region presidency office said that President Barzani met on Monday with the UK Ambassador to Iraq, Frank Baker. The press release said that both Barzani and the Ambassador "shared views on the military campaign against ISIS, relations between Erbil and Baghdad, and the political and economic challenges in Kurdistan and in Iraq."