Syrian Kurds ‘recapturing Kobani from Islamic State street by street’

Kurds battling Islamic State militants (IS) in Kobane were reported to have made big advances in the flashpoint Syrian town on the border with Turkey on Tuesdady. Top Kurdish officials said their fighters were advancing “street by street” and voiced confidence that IS would soon be ejected from the town. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitoring group, said the latest advances were mainly in the south of the besieged town.

The (Kurdish) People’s Protection Units (YPG) recaptured streets and buildings in the south of Kobane, after a fierce battle against IS that began yesterday (Monday) evening.

Syrian Observatory for Human Rights

Kobane has been under siege from IS since mid-September and more than 1,000 people have been killed in the fighting, most of them jihadists. Syria’s Kurds have been backed by Iraqi peshmerga fighters and Syrian rebels in their fight for the town, as well as a wave of air strikes by the U.S.-led coalition against IS. The Kurds’ top field commander in Kobane, Narin Afrin, a 40-year-old woman, said by telephone: “We have been resisting for 56 days in very difficult conditions.”

We will liberate the town house by house, and we are determined to exterminate terrorism and fundamentalism.

Kurdish chief Narin Afrin

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