In short: – UK and US etc decide to try to deal with ISIS on behalf of Kurds in Kobani, which means they do not provide the Kurds with the equipment they need to keep the area safe.On the 20th day of the Kobanê resistance the YPG has said fierce hand-to hand fighting is continuing on the Mishtenur hill. The YPG statement said that 86 ISIS gang members been killed, while 17 YPG/YPJ fighters had also died.
The YPG (People’s Defence Units) Press Centre has issued a statement on the 20th day of the Kobanê resistance.
The YPG stated that ISIS had sent reinforcements from Rakka, Dera Zor, Hol and Iraq, and attacked with tanks and heavy weaponry. The YPG said the resistance was continuing despite the onslaught that is now in its 20th day.
For the last 2 days the gangs have concentrated their attacks on the Mi?tenur hill to the south east of Kobanê town. The YPG said hand-to-hand fighting was continuing between YPG forces and ISIS gangs, adding that the gangs were placing heavy weapons closed to the town and shelling it.
86 gang members killed in last 24 hours
The statement provided information regarding clashes that have taken place in the last 24 hours. “Two attacks on the eastern front were repulsed, while a munitions dump belonging to the gangs was blown up on the western front. As far as we have been able to establish, 86 gang members have been killed on the three fronts in the last 24 hours.”
17 YPG/YPJ fighters died
“17 of our comrades who have waged a heroic resistance and determination to defend Kobanê fell during this period”, the statement added.
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By province : Aleppo ( 7 rebels, 2 civilians ), Reef Dimashq ( 12 rebels, 1 civilian ), Hama ( 1 rebel, 1 civilian ), Damascus ( 1 civilian ), Idlib ( 9 civilians, 2 rebels ), Homs ( 1 civilian ), Lattakia ( 3 rebels ), Dar’a ( 9 rebels ), Quneitra ( 1 rebels ).
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– 27 ISIS and 19 YPG killed by clashes between the two sides in the countryside of Ein al-Arab ” Kobane” .
– a female commander in YPG blew herself in a grouping of ISIS fighters around Ein al-Arab”Kobane”
– 17 Unknown rebels killed by clashes against regime forces, bombardment, and targeting their checkpoints .
– 31 National Defense Forces militiamen were killed by clashes and attacks on their checkpoints around Syria.
– 40 Regular forces were killed by clashes, snipers, IEDs, and attacks on their checkpoints and vehicles: Damascus and Reef Dimashq 7, Aleppo 4, Daraa 23, Homs 1, Hama 3. Lattakia 2.
– 28 Non-Syrian fighters from ISIS, Jund Al-Sham and Jabhat Al-Nusra were killed by clashes and targeted bombardment.
– 7 Non-Syrian fighters allied to the regular forces, killed by clashes against Islamic battalions and Jabhat al-Nusra in Reef Dimashq and Aleppo.
–4 fighters from Hezbollah and Islamic battalions killed by clashes between the two sides in Reef Dimashq and Aleppo.
a Female commander in YPG detonates herself in a grouping of IS fighters: Aleppo province: a female commander in YPG broke into ISIS bastion around the eastern outskirts of Ein al-Arab”Kobane” , clashed with them, fired grenades then detonated herself with a grenade . the clashes continue between the two sides around dozens of points around Ein al-Arab, after the IS have taken over 350 villages around the city.
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Reuters: Kurds battle Islamist militants closing in on Syrian town
Islamic State, an al Qaeda offshoot, is trying to seize the predominantly Kurdish border town of Kobani and has ramped up its offensive in recent days despite being targeted by U.S.-led coalition air strikes aimed at halting its progress.
On Sunday its forces battled Kurdish fighters for control of Mistanour, a strategic hill overlooking the town, and intense shelling and heavy machine gun fire were audible around Kobani, known as Ayn al-Arab in Arabic.
“The situation in Kobani has been bad in the past three days and today is the worst,” Idris Nassan said by telephone.
“The clashes are very heavy, there is bomb shelling, they are trying hard to get inside the city of Kobani. The YPG is responding strongly,” he said, referring to Kurdish forces.
He said the Islamic State fighters were only one kilometer (half a mile) away to the south east of the town.
Just across the border from Kobani, at least five people were wounded in a Turkish village close to the Mursitpinar crossing when a projectile from the fighting slammed into a house, witnesses said.
Turkish territory has repeatedly been hit by stray fire since the Kobani fighting erupted more than two weeks ago and Turkey has vowed to defend its borders. But up until now it has been reluctant to intervene against Islamic State.
Witnesses said the five victims, all from the same family, did not appear to be critically wounded. On Saturday a Turkish special forces officer was also lightly wounded by shrapnel, the media and local sources reported.
A translator with the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) inside Kobani said Islamic State forces were hitting Mistanor hill with tank and mortar fire as they tried to seize high ground from which they could dominate the streets below.
Kurdish forces had so far checked the advance, Parwer Mohammed Ali told Reuters, adding that there had been fresh airstrikes on Islamic State positions overnight. “They struck three or four times in the vicinity of Mistanour hill,” he said.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors the conflict, said at least 11 Kurdish fighters and 16 Islamic State insurgents were killed in the overnight clashes.
IRAQI TOWN RECAPTURED
The United States and its Western and Arab allies have carried out air strikes against Islamic State positions in Syria and neighboring Iraq, where the Sunni Islamist group swept through huge areas of Sunni Muslim northern provinces in June.
Iraqi security officials and witnesses said on Sunday that Islamic State fighters seized back half of Dhuluiya, 70 km (45 miles) north of Baghdad, just a day after Iraqi military forces recaptured the town on the banks of the river Tigris.
Despite the U.S.-led military intervention, a military stalemate exists in Iraq, with territory regularly switching hands between the Iraqi government and Islamic State.
In Syria, Islamic State launched its new offensive to capture Kobani two weeks ago. It has seized hundreds of villages around the town, forcing 180,000 people to flee into Turkey.
Families have taken up residence in muddy fields, abandoned shops, parks and mosques, adding to Turkey’s mounting humanitarian crisis, which has seen refugee numbers in the whole country swell to 1.5 million since the Syrian war began.
“We fled in fear and now we are stranded here with no work and little money. We are too ashamed to ask for help,” said Anwar Shehnebi, 43, a teacher and farmer with eight children.
Speaking in the Turkish town of Suruc, 10 km from the border, Shehnebi said Islamic State had seized vehicles from civilians, threatening the livelihood of farmers.
“(Islamic State) has nothing to do with Islam. The Arabs don’t like them but they are scared of them,” he said.
Kurds have called for help from Turkey and more U.S-led raids but cooperation is complicated by Syrian Kurds’ ties to the PKK — deemed a terrorist group by many Western states.
Turkish military patrols were visible west of Kobani on Sunday but there was no sign of significant troop movements. Tanks which earlier in the week had been deployed along the frontier had returned to their base.
On Saturday Turkish president Tayyip Erdogan vowed to act if Turkish soldiers were targeted by Islamic State in Syria but dampened speculation of intervening at Kobani, likening Kurds defending the town to the radical Islamist insurgents.
Western and Turkish officials also cite concerns about the Syrian Kurds’ ambiguous relationship with President Bashar al-Assad, who has mostly left the Kurds to their own devices while focusing firepower on insurgents fighting to unseat him. The Syrian Kurds have denied cooperating with Assad.
GOVERNMENT BATTLES INSURGENTS
Further west in Syria, government warplanes bombed towns in the countryside north of Aleppo, which the Syrian military is seeking to recapture from a mix of insurgent groups.
Last week the Syrian army made a new advance on Aleppo, seizing three villages north of the city and threatening rebel supply lines in a potentially major reversal.
Assad’s army has intensified an offensive in the heavily-populated western areas of Syria as U.S.-led warplanes concentrate on areas in the north and east — Islamic State areas which Damascus sees as less important.
Clashes took place between the Syrian army and Islamic State around Kowaires military airbase in Aleppo, the Observatory said, after Syrian warplanes carried out raids around it.
In the industrial city of Sheikh Najjar, northeast of Aleppo, Islamist groups including al Qaeda’s Nusra Front fought with government forces backed by pro-Assad militias and fighters from Shi’ite Lebanese group Hezbollah, the Observatory said.
Elsewhere in Syria insurgent forces made ground. Nusra Front and other Islamist groups captured a hilltop in southwest Syria from government forces on Sunday after two days of battles, the Observatory and pro-insurgent Twitter feeds reported.
The capture of al-Hara hill, close to the Israeli frontier, gives the Islamist insurgents the highest vantage point in the Deraa province and is a major blow to the Syrian military, said Rami Abdulrahman, who runs the Observatory.
(Additional reporting by Umit Bektas in Mursitpinar, Sylvia Westall in Beirut and Jonny Hogg in Ankara; Editing by Dominic Evans)
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BBC: Turkish police tear-gas BBC team near Syrian border
Paul Adams and his team were filming when the attack took place
A BBC team filming tensions on the Turkish-Syrian border has been tear-gassed by Turkish police as it left protests by local and Syrian Kurds.
Police fired two canisters towards the team, one of which smashed into their car, filling it with gas.
The incident occurred near Kobane, the scene of fierce fighting between advancing Islamic State (IS) militants and Syrian Kurds defending the town.
Kurds in Turkey are angry at perceived Turkish inaction in the battle.
A rocket apparently fell on a house across the Turkish border during fierce fighting around Kobane
At the scene: Paul Adams, BBC News, Suruc
Possibly prompted by a rocket, which landed in a house on the Turkish side of the border, the authorities decided to evacuate the whole area.
It was done with a heavy hand, using volleys of tear gas. Kurdish activists scattered across the fields, pursued by white clouds of gas.
We stopped to film a final piece to camera before leaving. Across the field, people were rushing to attend to a body lying prone in the dirt.
A white police truck approached and fired a tear gas canister which bounded along the track beside us.
As we clambered into our vehicle and started to leave, a second canister smashed through the rear window. It had been fired from no more than 10 feet away and could easily have killed anyone it hit.
The van quickly filled with choking tear gas. Curtains and upholstery started to catch fire. As we coughed and spluttered on the ground outside, our quick thinking driver and safety adviser put the fire out.
As we drove into the nearby town of Suruc, angry Kurdish youths were putting rocks across the road and brandishing stones. They were spoiling for a fight.
Meanwhile activists from the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights say a female Kurdish fighter has carried out a suicide attack on IS positions in the east of Kobane, killing a number of jihadists.
US-led forces have been conducting air strikes on IS positions in the area to try to slow their advance.
The strikes appeared to have slowed the IS advance, although the jihadists had captured part of a strategically important hill which would make it easier to take the town itself, the activists added.
Turkish forces are patrolling the border but have so far taken no action against IS
The militants have been besieging the town for nearly three weeks. More than 160,000 Syrians, mainly Kurds, have fled across the border since the offensive was launched.Capturing the town, also known as Ayn al-Arab, would give IS unbroken control of a long stretch of the Syrian-Turkish border.
Turkish Kurds and refugees have clashed with Turkish security forces on the border for the last two days.
They are angry and disappointed at Turkey’s perceived inaction over IS in recent months, as well as its refusal to allow them to cross into Syria to fight.
Last week, Turkey pledged to prevent Kobane from falling to the militants and its parliament has authorised military operations against militants in Iraq and Syria.
But it appears to have taken no action so far to prevent the fighting.
Correspondents says Turkey is reluctant to lend support to the Kurdish forces in the town because they are allied to the PKK, banned as a terrorist organisation in Turkey.
