U.N. Warns of Massacre if Islamic State Militants Take Over Kobani

The U.N. envoy to Syria, Staffan de Mistura, has warned that hundreds of people were likely be massacred if the Syrian border town of Kobani was captured by the Islamic State militants.

The U.N. envoy also compared the looming massacre to the mass killing of thousands of Muslims by Serbs, which happened at the Bosnian town of Srebrenica in 1995.

"You remember Srebrenica? We do. We never forgot. And probably we never forgave ourselves for that," he said, reports the Associated Press.

Speaking at a press conference in Geneva, Mistura showed a map of Kobani and said that only a narrow corridor is available for people to enter or escape from the town.

 Mistura said that 500 to 700 civilians, mainly elderly people, were trapped in the city. Another 10,000 to 13,000 people were stuck in an area close to the border, he said.

The U.N. envoy also appealed to Turkey to allow the flow of volunteers and equipment into Kobani.

"We need that because otherwise all of us, including Turkey, will be regretting deeply that we have missed an opportunity," he said, reports AP.

The U.N. envoy's warning comes in the backdrop of Islamic State gaining more control over Kobani. According to the Britain based-Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, the Islamic State militants have taken control of more than a third of the city.

Kurdish sources on the Turkish side of the border said that the Islamic State militants has established control  over a court house, police headquarters and the main municipal building in Kobani.  Anwar Muslim, head of the Kobani council, said that the militants had established control over half of the city, including Kurdish defense headquarters, reports Voice of America.