Fierce clashes have resumed between ISIL militants and Kurdish fighters in Kobani as they continue to make more gains on the battlefield against extremist militants in Syria's northern city, a Peshmerga commander says.
“Fighting has broken out in the south and northeast of the city and heavy weaponry is used in the fight,” Brigadier Toufik Khazyavayi said following fresh intense clashes in the early hours of Saturday.
He added that the Kurdish forces of the People’s Protection Units (YPG) are moving forward while the ISIL militants have failed to make any advance and are on the retreat.
The US-led coalition carried out at least four air raids on ISIL positions in Kobani, he said.
Last week, Ahmed Gerdi, a senior commander in charge of a contingent of 150 Kurdish Peshmerga forces, sent to Kobani by Iraq’s Kurdistan region, said the ISIL militant group is not a serious “threat” to the Syrian city any longer as Kurdish forces continue to gain more ground against the terrorists.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on November 9 that more than 1,000 people had been killed in the battle for Kobani since the beginning of the fight in mid-September.
As a result of the violence, more than 200,000 Kobani residents have also fled across the border into Turkey.
The ISIL militants currently control parts of Syria and Iraq. They have committed terrible atrocities in both countries, including mass executions and the beheading of local residents as well as foreign nationals.
