UN envoy to Syria: Global community must ‘act now’

UNITED NATIONS — The new United Nations envoy to Syria is calling for an urgent international response to the Islamic State group’s assault on a Kurdish town by the Turkish border, saying the global community can’t sustain another city falling to the extremist group.

Staffan de Mistura issued the demand for “concrete action” on Tuesday, after Turkey’s president declared that Kobani is on the brink of being captured.

De Mistura’s statement says: “The world, all of us, will regret deeply if ISIS is able to take over a city which has defended itself with courage but is close to not being able to do so. We need to act now.”

The attack has forced more than 200,000 people to flee, one of the largest single exoduses of the three-year Syrian conflict.