Turkey says it won't go it alone on ground against ISIS

Time may be running out. Smoke rose over Kobani, a Kurdish enclave in Syria that's a stone's throw from the Turkish border, as U.S. warplanes pounded ISIS targets from above while Kurdish fighters tried to fend off the Islamist extremist group from below.But ISIS isn't backing down. It seems to have wrested control of one-third of Kobani, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a London-based monitoring group.Speaking alongside visiting NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu stressed his country vehemently opposed ISIS and its actions in Kobani and elsewhere.Like it or not, Turkey is already knee deep in the regional unrest, having taken in more than 1.5 million people from Syria and Iraq, including some 200,000 Syrians from the Kobani region in the past two weeks.Cavusoglu said Turkey supports the U.S.-led airstrikes against ISIS, though he stated these can only be so effective."Maybe you can stop them for a short period but you cannot clean the whole region from ISIS or some other terrorist organizations," the foreign minister said. "You need to take into consideration all options, including an operation on the ground."That's what protesters around Turkey and outside of it have demanded, warning innocent people will be killed in mass -- much like what ISIS has been accused of in many other communities around Syria and Iraq, since it stepped up its armed campaign to take over territory amid Syria's yearslong civil war -- if something drastic isn't done.There are ongoing talks about what the international approach to the crisis could look like. "Once there is a (common) decision, Turkey will not be reluctant to do its part," Cavusoglu said."It is not realistic to expect Turkey to conduct a ground operation on its own," Cavusoglu said.Erdogan lashes out against protests calling for actionThis position won't satisfy those who have hit the streets around Turkey in recent days.They've chanted, marched and clashed with authorities using tear gas and other means."We want more airstrikes, we want a clear message," said Rebar Hajo, a Syrian Kurdish politician. "... The massacre is about to happen, and we have to act very ... promptly and intensify our attacks on them."According to Anadolu, the nation's semiofficial news agency, 30 people have been killed since Wednesday across eight locations during what it calls the "illegal protests." This figure does not include six killed Thursday in Bingol, including two police officers shot while "doing damage assessment from the protests."Dozens more have been injured in the protests nationwide, including at least three police officers in Istanbul alone.Agriculture Minister Mehdi Eker said 116 people had been arrested in connection with the violence and another 294 face charges for curfew violations.President Recep Erdogan criticized the demonstrations, claiming they were tied to connected to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party and aimed to "manipulate perceptions of Turkey's policies," according to another Anadolu story. In a statement, he vowed that Turkish authorities will go after those behind "these acts of violence, vandalism and looting."(CNN)Bakudaily.Az