DPA/Beirut
Short of weaponry and food supplies, Syria’s mostly Kurdish town of Kobane has been able to hold back repeated attempts by the Islamic State militant group to capture it since mid-September.
Kobane is strategically situated in northern Syria close to the Turkish border. To Syrian Kurds, the town is a symbol of resistance and pride.
“Kobane will make history by this unprecedented resistance and the steadfastness of its people despite the deteriorating humanitarian situation day after day,” Khaled Barkel, a local Kurdish official, said.
Fighters from the People’s Protection Units, a key Kurdish militia, are leading the battle against Islamic State, which also controls territory in other parts of Syria and neighbouring Iraq.
The Kurds are backed by US-led air strikes that started against the extremist group in Syria in late September.
In October, Kobane’s fighters were joined by some 150 members of the battle-hardened Iraqi Kurdish peshmerga forces - a reinforcement that has helped the Kurdish fighters halt the jihadists’ advance in Kobane in recent weeks.
Should Kobane fall to Islamic State, it would give the Al Qaeda splinter group control over an area of at least 100km near the Turkish-Syrian border, which could become a major supply route for the radical militia.
Barkel said a few families had in the past few weeks returned to Kobane, after Kurdish fighters liberated districts in the southern part of the town from the militants.
“Maybe we can say that 10 to 15% of the people of Kobane has returned,” Barkel told DPA by phone from inside the town.
By September 22, an estimated 200,000 residents had fled Kobane towards the Turkish border, fearing an incursion and mass atrocities by Islamic State.
“Life inside Kobane for those returnees is not easy at all. Food and medicine are rare to find. Sometimes families inside Kobane suffer from a shortage of milk for their children,” Barkel said.
“But our people are known to survive against all the odds. The world should do more to help. They should open humanitarian passages for our people.”
Idriss Nassan, another Kobane official, said the Kurdish fighters have fared well in recent weeks against the better-equipped militants.
“Our fighters need more weapons to continue the battle. The 150 peshmerga, who have come to Kobane with their weapons, have made a difference. But this is still not enough.”
However, Kurdish fighters like Halaa Kobane are optimistic. She believes that victory for Kurds there is imminent.
“We just want the world to know that we are fighting because we love freedom and not because we love war. We are peaceful people. We are fighting aggressors who started a war on us,” she said, speaking by phone from inside Kobane.
“We have lost brothers and sisters in the battle. But we know that with our determination and high morale, we’ll regain our land and live in dignity.”
People watch from the Turkish border as smoke rises from Kobane, in this October 26 file photo.
