A UN official said the organization’s aid effort is having trouble delivering supplies to 40% of the population in need. Talks between various opposition factions and the regime began in Moscow on Jan. 25. The US State Department denied assertions it has abandoned moderate rebels. Journalists entering Kobane have said the city is “a mass of rubble and gutted buildings” after the more than four months-long battle. King’s College in London estimates that over 20,000 foreigners, “including about 4,000 from Western Europe and about 3,000 from former Soviet Union countries,” are fighting in Syria. The US-led coalition conducted 13 airstrikes in Syria in the last 24 hours, all of them targeting Islamic State positions around Kobane.
