Fierce fighting shakes Kobani, Syria, as IS steps up attack
Battle for border town has ebbed and flowed amid US campaign against the Islamists
A
child, internally displaced due to fighting between rebels and forces
loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, looks out of his tent window
in Ekda village refugee camp, beside the Syrian-Turkish border in
northern Aleppo. Fierce fighting once again gripped the border town of
Kobani overnight. Photograph: Reuters
The fiercest fighting in days shook the Syrian border town of Kobani overnight as Islamic State fighters attacked Kurdish defenders with mortars and car bombs, sources in the town and a monitoring group have said.
Islamic State, which controls much of Syria and Iraq, fired 44 mortars at Kurdish parts of the town yesterday and some of the shells fell inside nearby Turkey, according to the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. It said four more mortars were fired today.
The
month-long battle for Kobani has ebbed and flowed. A week ago, Kurds
said the town would soon fall. The United States and its coalition
partners then stepped up air strikes on Islamic State, which wants to
take Kobani in order to strengthen its position in northern Syria.
The coalition has been bombing
Islamic State targets in Iraq since August and extended the campaign to
Syria in September after Islamic State, a group that espouses a rigid
interpretation of Islam and initially fought Syrian president Bashar
al-Assad’s forces, made huge territorial gains.
Raids
on Islamic State around Kobani have been stepped up, with the fate of
the town seen as an important test for US president Barack Obama’s
campaign against the Islamists.
Nato member
Turkey, whose forces are ranged along the border overlooking Kobani, is
reluctant to intervene. It insists the allies should also confront Mr
Assad to end Syria’s civil war, which has killed close to 200,000 people
since March 2011.
“We had the most intense
clashes in days, perhaps a week, last night. (Islamic State) attacked
from three different sides including the municipality building and the
market place,” said Abdulrahman Gok, a journalist in Kobani.
“Clashes
did not stop until the morning. We have had an early morning walk
inside the city and have seen lots of damaged cars on the streets and
unexploded mortar shells,” he said.
Car bombs
The
Observatory reported two Islamic State car bombs hit Kurdish positions
on yesterday evening, leading to casualties. A cloud of black smoke
towered over Kobani on Sunday.
A fighter from one
of the female units of the main Syrian Kurdish militia in Kobani, YPG,
said Kurdish fighters were able to detonate the car bombs before they
reached their targets.
“Last night there were
clashes all across Kobani ... this morning the clashes are still
ongoing,” she said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The
Observatory said 70 Islamic State fighters had been killed in the past
two days, according to sources at the hospital in the nearby town of Tel
Abyab, where Islamic State bodies are taken. These reports could not be
independently confirmed due to security restrictions.
The
Observatory said some Syrian Arab fighters from the Revolutionaries of
Raqqa Brigade, who are fighting alongside Kurdish fighters, had executed
two Islamic State captives.
“One was a child of around 15 years old. They shot them in the head,” he said.
Islamic
State have also used executions throughout their campaigns in Syria and
Iraq, killing hundreds of enemy combatants and civilians who oppose
their cause, according to Islamic State videos and statements.
Welat
Omer, a doctor caring for the few remaining civilians in Kobani, said
he was looking after 15 patients, including children and the elderly.
“We
need medicine, including antibiotics and milk for the children, and
medicine for the elderly, who have heart conditions, diabetes and high
blood pressure,” Mr Omer said.
Hundreds of
thousands have fled Islamic State’s advance. Turkey hosts about 1.5
million Syrian refugees, including almost 200,000 Syrian Kurds from
Kobani.
Ankara has refused to rearm beleaguered
Kurdish fighters, who complain they are at huge disadvantage in the face
of Islamic State’s weaponry, much of it seized from the Iraqi military
when the militants took the city of Mosul in June.
Turkey
views the YPG with suspicion for its long-standing links with the
Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which has waged a 30-year armed campaign
for self-rule in Turkey.
President Tayyip Erdogan
was quoted in the Turkish media today as saying Ankara will never arm
the YPG through its political wing, the PYD.
“There
has been talk of arming the PYD to establish a front here against
Islamic State. For us, the PYD is the same as the PKK, it’s a terrorist
organisation,” he was quoted as saying.
This
stance has sparked outrage among Turkey’s own Kurds, who make up about
20 percent of the population. Riots in several cities earlier this month
killed left than 35 people dead.
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