MESOP News Roundup: Monday, October 13 / Backed by airstrikes, Kurds fight for Kobani
“I am fearful that Kobani will fall,” Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the United States’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in an interview on ABC Sunday, adding that IS forces have adapted to the strikes by avoiding flying flags, moving in large convoys, or establishing identifiable headquarters. A leader of the YPG in Kobani said Sunday that YPG efforts and international airstrikes had “stopped IS’s progress, and improved the position of the Kurdish forces.” The airstrikes have destroyed “the greater part of IS’s heavy weapons and machinery” in and around Kobani, Jakdar Kobani was quoted by Kurdish news agency ARANews as saying.
US-led coalition warplanes carried out four strikes Monday against Islamic State (IS) positions in Kobani and its perimeter, resulting in an unreported number of casualties, reported the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) forces concurrently launched a campaign in the contested southern section of Kobani, capturing two IS-held buildings and reportedly killing 13 of its fighters. As of publishing, fighting is ongoing in the southern and eastern parts of the city.
IS has realized significant progress towards capturing Kobani since intensifying its siege of the city more than a month ago, having taken more than a third of the Kurdish border town last week, reported the SOHR.