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Kobani Kurds repel Isis assault on strategically vital border post
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Islamist militants tried overnight to seize a border post in Kobani, Syria, on the frontier with Turkey but were repulsed by Kurdish fighters, a monitoring group said.
This could be because it launched early, our rights have expired, there was a legal issue, or for another reason.
Islamic State (Isis) fighters have been trying to capture the town, known as Ayn al-Arab in Arabic, for over a month, pressing their assault despite US-led air strikes on their positions and the deaths of hundreds of their fighters.
The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said on Sunday it had confirmed that 815 people had been killed in the fighting for the town over the past 40 days, more than half of them Isis fighters.
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Idris Nassan, a local Kurdish official, said Islamic State fighters had shelled Kobani’s border gate on Saturday night but Kurdish fighters had pushed them back in the south and west.
“Of course they will try again tonight. Last night they brought new reinforcements, new supplies, and they are pushing hard,” he said.
To lose the border gate, the only official way for Kurdish fighters in Kobani to cross into Turkey, would be a major blow to those defending the town as well as the civilians who still remain.
On Sunday, Turkish police dispersed media and other observers from two hills overlooking Kobani, a Reuters witness said. There were two air strikes in the early afternoon and dark grey smoke hung in plumes over the town, which has been largely destroyed.
Iraqi Kurdish “peshmerga” fighters are expected to arrive to reinforce the fighters in Kobani, who are mostly members of the Syrian Kurdish YPG armed group, after Turkey last week said it would allow them to pass through its territory.
The chief of staff to the president of Iraqi Kurdistan said on Sunday that the timetable for their departure was still being finalised.
The Observatory said it had confirmed that 302 YPG fighters had so far been killed in the fighting for Kobani so far, as well as 481 Isis fighters, 10 fighters from other groups, 21 civilians, and one volunteer bringing ammunition to YPG fighters.
Dara Abdi, a lawyer working for a human rights organisation sympathetic to the PYD, said one YPG fighter had been killed and seven wounded in the fight for the border post overnight.
