Former Syrian parliamentarian hunger strikes in Washington

Former Syrian parliamentarian Moustafa Mohamad has begun a hunger strike in Washington in a bid to pressure the United States to better support Kurdish fighters in the besieged north Syrian town of Kobani, RIA Novosti reported.

“My goal is for humanitarian aid to reach the people of Kobani; for the armed Kurds in Turkey to be able to go to Kobani to help defeat the Islamic State and for the US government and the international community to aid, including with weapons, the fighters inside the city,” Mohamad told RIA Novosti Tuesday.

Mohamad, a Kurd who sat in Syria’s parliament in the early 1990s, began an open-ended hunger strike at Dupont Circle on Monday in support of holdouts in his home town, Kobani, where Kurdish fighters are tackling an advance by Islamic State (IS) militants.

“Airstrikes from the US and its allies have been big morale booster for the town’s Kurdish fighters so they know they are not forgotten – but there needs to be more airstrikes in order for for them to prevail. Our goal is for the defenders of Kobane to secure victory there,” Mohamad added.