Kurds fend off Islamic State fighters in latest attack on Kobane crossing

Kurdish forces in the Syrian town of Kobane thwarted a new attempt by fighters from the Islamic State group Sunday to cut off the border with Turkey before Iraqi Kurdish reinforcements can deploy. The pre-dawn assault marked the fourth straight day that the jihadists had attacked the Syrian side of the border crossing as the Iraqi Kurdish peshmerga fighters prepare to head for Kobane, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. Kurdish forces, backed by US-led air strikes, have been holding out for weeks against an IS offensive around Kobane, which has become a high-profile symbol of efforts to stop the advance of the jihadists.

Of course they will try again tonight. Last night they brought new reinforcements, new supplies, and they are pushing hard.

Idris Nassan, a local Kurdish official

More than 800 people have been killed in ground fighting for Kobane since the IS offensive on the Syrian Kurdish enclave began on September 16, the Syrian Observatory said. The jihadists have lost 481, while 313 Kurds have been killed fighting to defend the area. The figures do not include IS losses to US-led air strikes, which the Pentagon has said run to “several hundred”. Civilians accounted for 21 of the dead. The jihadist assault prompted nearly all of the enclave’s population to flee, with some 200,000 refugees streaming over the border into neighbouring Turkey. Last week, under heavy US pressure, Turkey unexpectedly announced that it would allow peshmerga fighters to cross its territory to join the fight for Kobane.

Middle East Kurds