MURSITPINAR: At least 500 civilians who remain trapped in the Syrian Kur­dish border town of Kobani are likely to be “massacred” if it falls to the Islamic State group, the UN envoy to Syria warned on Friday, calling on the world to help avert a catastrophe as the extremists pushed deeper into the embattled town.

Staffan de Mistura raised the spectre of some of the worst genocides of the 20th century during a news conference in Geneva, where he held up a map of the town along the Syria-Turkey border and said a UN analysis shows only a small corridor remains open for people to enter or flee Kobani.

The warning came as the Islamic State group pushed into Kobani from the south and east, taking over most of the so-called “Kurdish security quarter”, an area where Kurdish militiamen who are struggling to defend the town maintain security buildings and where the police station, the municipality and other local government offices are located.

The onslaught by the Islamic State group on Kob­ani, which began in mid-September, has forced more than 200,000 to flee across the border into Turkey.

Published in Dawn, October 11th , 2014