MESOP TODAY’S NEWS ROUND UP SYRIA : IS CONTROL 60 % OF KOBANE
Kurdish forces have realized “noticeable progress” on Kobani’s western front against Islamic State (IS) fighters as a result of the arrival of Peshmerga reinforcements and heavy weapons to the city last week, Al Arabiya reported Wednesday.
The Islamic State controls roughly 60 percent of the city of Kobani, Abdul Jabar al-Akidi, the commander of FSA in Kobani, said in an interview uploaded to YouTube earlier this week.
As of publishing, Kurdish People’s Protection Units forces, supported by the Peshmerga and FSA fighters, are battling IS combatants on the northern and western fronts of the city, reported the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The SOHR did not mention which side, if any, was making progress on those fronts.
Anwar Muslim, the head of the Syrian Kurdish Kobani canton that declared its autonomy in January, called for additional military aid to the city in remarks made Wednesday at the Middle East Research Institute conference in Erbil, reported Kurdish news agency Rudaw.