Islamic State: Kurdish forces take control of Syrian border town of Kobane, monitoring group says
The siege of Kobane appears to be over, after Kurdish fighters in the Syrian border town claimed victory over militants from the Islamic State group.
With the backing of US-led air strikes and support from Iraqi Kurdish peshmerga forces, Syrian Kurdish (YPG) forces gained control of the town, Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said.
US central command confirmed that 90 per cent of Kobane was under control by “anti-ISIL forces”.
A Kurdish flag has been mounted atop a hill near the town.
In Iraq, a senior army officer announced that Iraqi forces had also “liberated” Diyala province from the IS group.
Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman said YPG forces had “expelled all Islamic State fighters from Kobane and have full control of the town”.
“The Kurds are pursuing some jihadists on the eastern outskirts of Kobane, but there is no more fighting inside now,” he said.
The monitor said Kurdish forces were carrying out “mopping-up operations” against remaining IS forces in the Maqtala district, on the eastern outskirts of the town.
There was no immediate official announcement from the YPG, but Mustafa Ebdi, an activist from the town, said “fighting has stopped”.
The advance by Kurdish fighters came after 24 hours of heavy bombing by the US-led coalition fighting IS in Syria and Iraq.
In a statement, the Pentagon said the coalition had carried out 17 air strikes against IS positions in Kobane in the 24 hours from January 25 alone.
Loss of Kobane a symbolic blow to IS
Kobane official Idris Nassan said half of the town had been completely destroyed and much of the rest of it had suffered damage, leaving many homeless.
He said the town lacked water, electricity, hospitals and food.
Meanwhile, the YPG is training female fighters in the western countryside of Ras al-Ain, a frontier town that was bombed by rebels in December.
Analysts said the loss of Kobane was both a symbolic and strategic blow for IS, which set its sights on the small town in a bid to cement its control over a long stretch of the Syrian-Turkish border.
Since the group emerged in its current form in 2013, it has captured large swathes of territory in both Syria and Iraq.
The fighting in Kobane killed at least 1,600 people, according to the SOHR.
Civilians were largely spared because the town’s residents evacuated en masse, mostly across the border into Turkey, in the early stages of the fighting.
More than 200,000 people have been killed in Syria’s multi-front war, which began in March 2011 with anti-government protests but spiralled into a bloody conflict.
Reuters/AFP
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-01-27/kurdish-forces-take-control-of-kobane/6047610