By Kathryn Maureen Ryan
Impunity Watch, Managing Editor

DAMASCUS, Syria – Kurdish fighters, supported by U.S.-led air strikes targeting areas controlled by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS), are reportedly close to regaining full control of the embattled Syrian town of Kobani situated near the Turkish border. Kobani has largely been under the control of ISIS fighters, from Islamic State fighters. Kurdish officials as well as Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a human rights group based in the United Kingdom, reported the advance of Kurdish fighters on Monday.

 

Smoke rises from the Syrian city of Kobani, following an airstrike by the U.S.-led coalition, seen from a hilltop outside Suruc, on the Turkey-Syria border. Syrian activists and Kurdish officials say the extremist Islamic State group has been nearly pushed out of the Syrian border town of Kobani. (Photo courtesy of Boston Herald)

Kobani was seen as a key strategic city for the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. The group saw the town’s location in relation to the Turkish border as part of a critical brought for the flow of weapons and fighters from Turkey, including several fighters from Europe, into the Islamic State controlled regions of the country. After declaring victory in reclaiming the city Kurdish fighters raised a Kurdish flag on a hill that once flew the Islamic State group’s black banner. For the Kurdish fighters The victory represents a key conquest both for the embattled Kurds as well as  the U.S.-led coalition, whose American coordinator had predicted that the Islamic State group would “impale itself” on Kobani.

Kobani, also called Ayn al-Arab, has become a symbol in the battle against ISIS and other insurgent’s movements in the region who have captured large expanses of both Syria and Iraq. ISIS first launched a campaign to capture the town and incorporate it within its self-proclaimed caliphate in July of Last year. “Our forces are making progress but until now the YPG has not declared that is has taken all of Kobani back. We think tomorrow Kobani will be free,” Kobani official Idris Nassan told reports from Reuters by telephone. Nassan said that as a result of the assault of ISIS half of the town has been completely destroyed and the rest of the town has suffered damage, leaving many people homeless. He also said the town now lacked water, electricity, hospitals and food needed to support the struggling population.

Syrian Kurdish YPG forces who have been attempting to win-back land from ISIS and protect the regions Kurdish population has often been supported by Iraqi Kurdish forces known as Peshmerga. According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Kurdish forces in the town are still battling Islamic State on the eastern outskirts of the town. Since September of last year ISIS has captured some 300 Kurdish villages forcing tens of thousands of Kurds from Syria and Iraq to flee the Kurdistan region.

For more information, please see:

Boston Herald – Islamic State Group Nearly Pushed Out Of Syria’s Kobani – 26 January 2015

CNN International – Opposition Group: Kurdish Fighters Advance in Kobani, Syria – 26 January 2015

The Jerusalem Post – Kurds Drive ISIS Out Of Kobani after 4-Month Struggle – 26 January 2015

Reuters – Kurds Close to Driving Islamic State Out Of Syria’s Kobani: Monitor – 26 January 2015

Author: Impunity Watch Archive