Mursitpinar, Turkey: Kurdish militia backed by US-led air strikes fought fierce street battles on Tuesday with advancing militants whose three-week assault on a key Syrian border town has left hundreds reported dead.
The fall of Kobani to Daesh would mark a major victory for the militants, who are fighting for a long stretch of the border with Turkey for their self-proclaimed “Islamic caliphate”.
At least 412 people, more than half of them Islamist militants, have been killed in and around Kobani since mid-September, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
It warned that the inaccessibility of the area meant that the full toll was probably much higher.
With the fight for Kobani entering a crucial phase, the Daesh militants fought to extend their foothold into new areas in the south and west of the town, a day after piercing its Kurdish defences.
Gunfire, explosions and the roar of fighter jets were heard from the Turkish side of the border, while a Kurdish flag was seen flying in the centre of Kobani.
The Daesh militants “are trying hard to capture the city”, said Idris Nahsen, a Kurdish official still in Kobani, also known as Ain Al Arab.
He said they were meeting resistance from the Kurdish People’s Protection Units.
“We need help from the international community,” Nahsen said by telephone. “Either we finish them [Daesh] or they will finish us.”
Daesh fighters have seized a number of buildings in south and west Kobani, including a hospital under construction, according to the Observatory, a Britain-based monitoring group.
Kurdish fighters have ordered civilians to evacuate the town, after the militants planted their black flags on its eastern side and entered Kobani on Monday.
In Iraq, meanwhile, at least 17 people were reported killed when a suicide bomber attacked an observation post used by Shiite militiamen watching for Daesh fighters crossing the Tigris River late Monday.
The United States and its allies have launched nearly 2,000 air raids against militants in both Iraq and Syria in an attempt to stop their advance, including four strikes in Kobani on Tuesday.
The Kurdish fighters are optimistic that their local knowledge of Kobani will compensate for their light weapons, said activist Mustafa Ebdi.
‘Fight to the last’
“They are fighting to defend their town and they say they will fight to the last person,” he said.
Ebdi said the latest US air raids had little effect.
“The strikes hit the Mishtenur area,” he said, referring to a plateau south of Kobani.
“But they [Daesh] aren’t gathered there. There are other places they should be hitting,” he said.
The raging battle has prompted some 186,000 residents to flee across the Turkish border.
An official in the Turkish town of Suruc said on Tuesday that 700 people, including 47 wounded, had crossed the border from Syria overnight, both civilians and Kurdish combatants.
Seven bodies were also carried across the frontier.
Turkey last week won parliamentary approval for military intervention against Daesh in Syria and Iraq, but it has yet to announce any plans for military action despite the advance of the militants to its doorstep.
