Islamic State fighters in control of 40% of Kobani: Syrian Observatory for Human Rights

The Islamic State (IS) fighters have seized some 40 percent of Kobani as US-led airstrikes have failed to stop the extremist group from transporting military equipment to the city, Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported Friday.

“IS fighters advanced in the city of Ayn al-Arab [Kobani] where they took control over the whole security box inside the city and which contains buildings and posts affiliated to the Democratic Self-administration. . . Thus, IS fighters are taking control over 40% of the area,” SOHR wrote, citing “reliable sources”.

US-led airstrikes against IS, which have been aimed at the group’s positions in the city of Kobani and its outskirts, “have not prevented IS fighters from bringing munitions from the countryside of Aleppo and al Raqqa”, SOHR claimed, adding that IS “focused on using motorcycles to transport ammunition and fighters”.

A group from the Asayish, the official security organization of Syrian Kurdistan, reportedly infiltrated a building in the northern outskirts of the strategic Mashtat Nour hill, which overlooks Kobani, and killed four IS fighters.

According to a Sky News Arabia correspondent in the region, some 125 Kurdish fighters have been killed and 12 are kidnapped in the city’s northeast.

The Islamic State (IS), also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS) or the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), has been fighting the Syrian government since 2012. In June 2014, it extended its attacks to northern and western Iraq. In August, the United States authorized limited airstrikes against IS targets in Iraq. Washington extended its airstrikes against the militants into Syria in September, after US President Barack Obama announced his decision to form an international anti-IS coalition.

For the last three weeks, IS militants have besieged Kobani, also known as Ayn al-Arab, one of the largest towns in the Kurdish region of Syria bordering Turkey. More than 400 people have died in clashes between IS and Kurdish fighters in Kobani, according to SOHR.

According to the United Nations, over 170,000 residents of the city have fled to Turkey following the IS advance.