Kurdish forces cleared Kobane of the ISIS infiltrators who killed 200 civilians, Rudwa and others reported. At the Crossroads contacts tell us that the number of dead could be twice that.
Many families on both sides of the border — including that of new believers — lost family members. The border crossing between Syria and Turkey near Kobane is closed except for the wounded, our contacts report.
K. said that at least one boy he had ministered to in a refugee camp was killed in the attack. K. is distraught as he loves these children like family. He asks for prayer. We received another report that one of the younger boys from the camp had been beheaded.
One of our contacts safely espaped Kobane by night and returned to Suruc in Turkey. The family that had initially alerted us to the ISIS attack has decided to stay in Syria now that the Kurdish security forces have secured Kobane.
One encouraging detail of the day was that one ISIS attacker holding hostages killed two other hostage takers and released 16 captives, so reported Kurdish media site Rudaw.
This news story was an answer to prayer. Y. in Israel wrote that he and his wife had earlier prayed that these attacking men would stop killing, stealing and destroying and start protecting, saving and love.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says that in the year since ISIS declared it’s caliphate, 3,000 have been executed, with nearly 1,800 of those being civilians (Al Arabiya). This does not include battle deaths.
Prayer points
• Please continue to pray for our brothers and sisters in the region as well as all the others displaced and terrorized by ISIS. The United Nations reports that as many as 120,000 people have been displaced by the recent fighting in Hasakka. (Al Arabiya) These persons have not left Syria but have moved with in the region, some heading north toward the border.
• Pray for those ministering among the refugees, that the LORD would strengthen them and minister to them in their loss.
• Pray that we would have wisdom as we pray about how to continue ministering to the suffering.
• Pray that the LORD would guard our communications and supply us with the information we need.
We pray for all those affected by the various other attacks — in Tunisia, France, Kuwait, Somalia — that were perpetrated on Thursday.
