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ByLefterisPitarakis The Associated Press MURSITPINAR, TURKEY In its battle for the Syrian town of Kobani, the Islamic State group enjoys a key ad- vantage: a supply of weap- ons, ammunition and fight- ers shuttling between Syria and Iraq. The town's Syrian Kurdish defenders, while backed by airstrikes from the U.S.-led coalition, are outnumbered, poorly armed and squeezed against the unwelcom- ing Turkish border. Re- flecting growing despera- tion despite their success so far in holding out, Syr- ian Kurdish officials are increasingly their appeals to better arm the defend- ers of the strategic fron- tier town. "From the start, we said the coalition's airstrikes will not be able to save Ko- bani or to defeat Daesh in the area," said Idriss Nas- san, deputy head of Koba- ni's foreign relations com- mittee, using an Arabic acronym for the Islamic State group. "We call upon the in- ternational community to open a humanitarian safe passage to allow in food, medicine, and weapons sup- plies," Nassan told The As- sociated Press. It's unclear what friendly countries could do. Weap- ons for Kurdish fighters would have to cross through Turkey — a request the An- kara government is likely to rebuff. The Islamic State group launched its Kobani of- fensive in mid-September, capturing dozens of nearby Kurdish villages and a third of the town in lightning ad- vances that sent waves of ci- vilians fleeing over the bor- der into Turkey. SYRIA Kurdish official calls for arms for Kobani By Ken Dilanian The Associated Press WASHINGTON Despite years of diplomacy and a CIA operation to vet and train moderate rebels, the U.S. finds itself without a credible partner on the ground in Syria as it bombs the Islamic State group. That's a potentially serious flaw in its strategy to ulti- mately defeat the militants. Obama administration officials have long con- ceded that airstrikes alone won't drive IS from its strongholds across Syria and Iraq, but it also has ruled out the use of Amer- ican ground troops. The U.S. strategy to crush IS rests on the use of local proxy forces, and hinges on plans to use $500 million and a base in Saudi Arabia to build an army of moder- ate Syrian rebels. The ground force compo- nent has always been seen as a challenge in Syria, but the difficulty has become clearer in recent days. Offi- cials acknowledge that the U.S. doesn't trust any Syr- ian rebel groups enough to coordinate on the air cam- paign, despite attempts by some pro-Western fighters to pass along intelligence about IS positions. The CIA has secretly trained and is paying more than 1,000 moderates to help achieve the adminis- tration's stated objective of overthrowing Syrian pres- ident Bashar Assad, U.S. of- ficials have said. Those fighters have been gaining ground against Assad in southern Syria and in some places are fighting IS, said Robert Ford, a former U.S. am- bassador to Syria. The CIA-funded fighters have proven reliable and have made modest gains, said a congressional aide who has been briefed on the matter. The aide spoke only on con- dition of anonymity to dis- cuss sensitive intelligence. But some analysts have questioned the fighters' loy- alty and competence. Ei- ther way, it's clear their im- pact has not been decisive. "Most of these groups have worked closely with Jabat al Nusra at some point in the last year or so," said Joshua Landis, the Ar- abic-speaking director of the Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Oklahoma, referring to the head of Syria's al-Qa- ida spinoff. "Some of them have worked hand in glove with ISIS. For Americans to call a sit-down and say 'Here's where we're bomb- ing' doesn't make any sense. We don't trust these guys." American officials don't go that far in public re- marks, but they have been fairly blunt. "We don't have a willing, capable, effective partner on the ground inside Syria right now," Rear Adm. John Kirby, the Pentagon spokes- man, said last week. "It's just a fact." John Allen, the retired Marine general in charge of coordinating the U.S.- led coalition against the Is- lamic State group, told re- porters Wednesday that "at this point, there is not for- mal coordination with" the U.S.-backed moderate reb- els known as the Free Syr- ian Army. That approach has infu- riated rebels, fueling mis- trust on both sides. The commander of a moderate rebel brigade in the north- ern Aleppo province, who goes by the nom de guerre Abu Thabet, called the U.S.- led airstrikes "pointless and self-serving." As Americans have bombed IS positions else- where, Syrian government forces have advanced in northern Aleppo province, Abu Thabet said. Moderate factions like his are trapped between IS fighters on one side and government forces on another, and the U.S. has not once hit IS along the 12-mile front it occupies against his group, he said. Abu Thabet said rebels have tried to pass along information about IS po- sitions to the U.S. military, but have received no re- sponse. "The Americans are kid- ding themselves," he said. He then praised the Nusra Front —underscoring the sort of concerns that be- devil U.S. policymakers. "I am surprised at how fractious and disuni- fied the Syrian opposition has been," said Michael O'Hanlon, a military strat- egy expert at the Brook- ings Institution. "They just haven't managed to find a charismatic leader or a sin- gle rallying point." Part of the explanation, he and others said, rests with the decision by the Obama administration not to fund and equip the mod- erates three years ago, be- fore Nusra and IS grew in strength. Allen said the U.S.-led coalition intends "to build a coherence to the Free Syr- ian Army elements that will give it the capacity and the credibility over time to be able to make its weight felt in the battlefield against ISIL. It's going to require a build phase. It's going to re- quire a training and equip- ping phase." But critics question whether $500 million and several thousand fighters will be enough. "I do not understand how 5,000 to 10,000 men are going to hold the east- ern half of Syria," said Ford, the former ambassa- dor. "It looks woefully inad- equate to me." O'Hanlon, the analyst, added that the numbers suggest the Obama strat- egy is "not that serious." WAR ON TERRORISM US s ea rc hi ng f or c re di bl e al li es i n Sy ri a U.S.NAV—BRIANSTEPHEN U.S. sailors launch aircra on the aircra carrier USS George H.W. Bush in the Persian Gulf on Friday. By Marcia Dunn The Associated Press CAPE CANAVERAL, FLA. The heavens are hosting an event this weekend that oc- curs once in a million years or so. A comet as hefty as a small mountain will pass mind-bogglingly close to Mars on Sunday, approach- ing within 87,000 miles at a speed of 126,000 mph. NASA's five robotic ex- plorers at Mars — three or- biters and two rovers — are being repurposed to wit- ness a comet named Siding Spring make its first known visit to the inner solar sys- tem. So are a European and an Indian spacecraft cir- cling the red planet. The orbiting craft will attempt to observe the in- coming iceball, then hide behind Mars for protec- tion from potentially dan- gerous dusty debris in the comet tail. Shielded by the Martian atmosphere, the Oppor- tunity and Curiosity rov- ers may well have the best seats in the house, although a dust storm on Mars could obscure the view. "We certainly have fin- gers crossed for the first images of a comet from the surface of another world," said NASA program scien- tist Kelly Fast. Spacecraft farther afield, including the Hubble Space Telescope, already are keep- ing a sharp lookout, as are ground observatories and research balloons. "We're getting ready for a spectacular set of observa- tions," said Jim Green, head of NASA's planetary science division. Named for the Australian observatory used to detect it in January 2013, Siding Spring will approach Mars from beneath and zoom right in front Sunday after- noon, Eastern Time. On Earth, the best view- ing, via binoculars or tele- scope, will be from the Southern Hemisphere — South Africa and Australia will be in prime position. In the Northern Hemisphere, it will be difficult to see Sid- ing Spring slide by Mars. The comet — with a nu- cleus estimated to be at least a half-mile in diameter — hails from the Oort Cloud on the extreme fringe of the solar system. It formed dur- ing the first million or two years of the solar system's birth 4.6 billion years ago and, until now, ventured no closer to the sun than perhaps the orbits of Jupi- ter, Saturn, Uranus or Nep- tune. It comes around every one or more million years. It will be the first Oort Cloud comet to be studied up close in detail. For comparison, the flyby distance of 87,000 miles is about one-third of the way from here to the moon. Siding Spring's tail could extend from Earth all the way to our moon. Its gas- eous coma, the fuzzy head surrounding the nucleus, might stretch halfway to the moon. No comet has come any- where near this close to Earth in recorded history. "We can't get to an Oort Cloud comet with our cur- rent rockets ... so this comet is coming to us," said Carey Lisse, senior astrophysicist at Johns Hopkins Universi- ty's applied physics labora- tory. By studying Siding Spring's composition and structure, scientists hope to learn more about how the planets formed, according to Lisse. Scientists also are keen to spot any changes to the comet or Mars due to the close approach. NASA's newly arrived Maven space- craft, for instance, will com- pare the upper atmosphere before and after it passes. "Think about a comet that started its travel prob- ably at the dawn of man and it's just coming in close now," Lisse said. "And the reason we can actually ob- serve it is because we have built satellites and rovers. We've now got outposts around Mars." Scientists initially wor- ried the spacecraft orbiting Mars would be at consider- able risk from the comet's massive trail of dust. The nucleus itself poses no danger of impact. But the particles in the tail, hurtling through space at 126,000 mph could fry electronics, puncture fuel lines, or destroy computers, transmitters or other vital spacecraft parts. SPACE Co me t bu zz in g Ma rs o n Su n da y ESA, J.-Y. L — NASA ESA, and J.-Y. Li shows comet C/2013A1, also known as Siding Spring, as captured by Wide Field Camera 3on NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. Please help sponsor a classroom subscription Call Kathy at (530) 527-2151 to find out how. Through the Newspapers in Education program, area classrooms receive the Red Bluff Daily News every day thanks to the generosity of these local businesses & individuals. • SHOFF ORTHODONTICS • DOLLING INSURANCE • GUMM'S OPTICAL SHOPPE • HOOKER CREEK INC. • CALIFORNIA WALNUT COMPANY • LEPAGE COMPANY INC. • MODERN CLEANERS • OLIVE CITY QUICK LUBE • WALMART • TEHAMA CO. DEPT. 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