Kurdish forces battled Islamic State fighters
outside Kobani on Tuesday, a monitoring group
said, a day after Kurds said they had taken full
control of the northern Syrian town following a
four-month battle.
Known as Ayn al-Arab in Arabic, the mainly
Kurdish town close to the Turkish border has
become a focal point in the international fight
against Islamic State, an al Qaeda offshoot that
has spread across Syria and Iraq.
There were clashes to the southeast and
southwest of Kobani, the Britain-based Syrian
Observatory for Human Rights said, although it
added the Kurdish People's Protection Units
(YPG) had managed to recapture a village
outside the town.
The YPG said on Monday Kobani had been
"completely liberated" from Islamic State, which
it referred to using the pejorative Arabic
acronym "Daesh".
"The defeat of Daesh in Kobani will be the
beginning of the end for the group," a statement
on its website said.
Islamic State still has fighters in hundreds of
nearby villages. The Observatory reported
airstrikes around Kobani on Tuesday, and on
Monday the Pentagon said the fight for the
town was not yet over. Islamic State supporters
denied the group had been pushed out.
Television footage aired on Tuesday from
Kobani showed entire blocks levelled by
bombardment, tangled steel and chunks of
cement sprawled along muddy streets. Roads
were littered with unexploded ordnance and
mortar casings.
The militant group launched an assault on
Kobani last year using heavy weapons seized in
Iraq and forcing tens of thousands of locals
over the border into Turkey. U.S.-led air strikes
and Iraqi Kurdish peshmerga fighters have
backed up the YPG, which called for
international help during the siege.
Turkey is hosting around 1.5 million refugees
from across Syria.
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan called for
more international attention to the besieged city
of Aleppo.
"When it is about Kobani, the whole world
stands up and cooperates. Those who flee
Kobani come to us, 200,000 people.
"We tell them about Aleppo, nobody listens. 1.2
million people live there, there is economy,
history and culture, why aren't you interested?"
he said.
Ankara is wary of support for Syrian Kurds
because of their links to the separatist PKK in
Turkey, currently holding a ceasefire in a conflict
that began in 1984.
Turkish police fired tear gas on Tuesday to stop
people trying to cross back into Kobani to
celebrate its retaking, a Kurdish politician and a
journalist said.
outside Kobani on Tuesday, a monitoring group
said, a day after Kurds said they had taken full
control of the northern Syrian town following a
four-month battle.
Known as Ayn al-Arab in Arabic, the mainly
Kurdish town close to the Turkish border has
become a focal point in the international fight
against Islamic State, an al Qaeda offshoot that
has spread across Syria and Iraq.
There were clashes to the southeast and
southwest of Kobani, the Britain-based Syrian
Observatory for Human Rights said, although it
added the Kurdish People's Protection Units
(YPG) had managed to recapture a village
outside the town.
The YPG said on Monday Kobani had been
"completely liberated" from Islamic State, which
it referred to using the pejorative Arabic
acronym "Daesh".
"The defeat of Daesh in Kobani will be the
beginning of the end for the group," a statement
on its website said.
Islamic State still has fighters in hundreds of
nearby villages. The Observatory reported
airstrikes around Kobani on Tuesday, and on
Monday the Pentagon said the fight for the
town was not yet over. Islamic State supporters
denied the group had been pushed out.
Television footage aired on Tuesday from
Kobani showed entire blocks levelled by
bombardment, tangled steel and chunks of
cement sprawled along muddy streets. Roads
were littered with unexploded ordnance and
mortar casings.
The militant group launched an assault on
Kobani last year using heavy weapons seized in
Iraq and forcing tens of thousands of locals
over the border into Turkey. U.S.-led air strikes
and Iraqi Kurdish peshmerga fighters have
backed up the YPG, which called for
international help during the siege.
Turkey is hosting around 1.5 million refugees
from across Syria.
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan called for
more international attention to the besieged city
of Aleppo.
"When it is about Kobani, the whole world
stands up and cooperates. Those who flee
Kobani come to us, 200,000 people.
"We tell them about Aleppo, nobody listens. 1.2
million people live there, there is economy,
history and culture, why aren't you interested?"
he said.
Ankara is wary of support for Syrian Kurds
because of their links to the separatist PKK in
Turkey, currently holding a ceasefire in a conflict
that began in 1984.
Turkish police fired tear gas on Tuesday to stop
people trying to cross back into Kobani to
celebrate its retaking, a Kurdish politician and a
journalist said.
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