US Central Command issued a video of an air strike on an ISIS compound near Kobane on September 27. ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - ISIS has withdrawn from several villages around Kobane in Syrian Kurdistan (Rojava) following US-led air strikes, a source from the Kurdish militia YPG told Rudaw on Sunday. ISIS have hit Kobane seven times since Saturday, killing one and injuring 15 others, but the method of attack was not known, Rudaw’s Omar Kalo reported. After ISIS strongholds were shelled, militants were forced to withdraw and cease fighting on the outskirts of Kobane, he said. They withdrew from the villages of Siftak, Ali-Shar and Sheran. A total of seven targets were hit in Syria, the Pentagon said. They included Barkhibtan and Telejbe, which are villages located to the east of Kobane, Mazra Sofian in the west, and Telghazal to the south of the town. Refugees trapped between Kobane and the Turkish border, meanwhile, were caught in heavy rain overnight - the sole crossing to Turkey shuts at 8pm. Some 160,000 refugees have already fled to Turkey. Washington has been supported in its Syria campaign by Arab allies Bahrain, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Iraq’s Ministry of Defence announced the Iraqi air force had carried out 89 air strikes against ISIS strongholds in Iraq. The international coalition against ISIS looked set to expand with Australia poised to join air strikes in a matter of days. Julie Bishop, foreign minister, said she expected the legal framework for Australian strikes in Iraq to be agreed with Baghdad shortly, the Sydney Morning Herald reported. She also said Australia would consider any request to be involved in strikes in Syria. Germany announced it had started training 32 Kurdish Peshmerga fighters at an army school in Bavaria, where they will stay until October 3 to receive weapons training, Germany began delivering arms to northern Iraq on Thursday, dispatching a shipment of 50 hand-held anti-tank weapons, 520 G3 rifles and 20 machine guns. The German plan calls for arming 10,000 Kurdish fighters with some 70 million euros ($90 million) worth of equipment, the AP reported. Germany is also sending some 40 paratroopers to help train the fighters on the weapons. Nechirvan Barzani, the KRG prime minister, started a two-day trip to Turkey on Sunday. He was expected to discuss Turkey’s possible military role in the war against ISIS. Relations between Erbil and Ankara were strained after Turkey took a back seat in the war against ISIS, which made a lightning advance across large swathes of Iraq during the summer. Also on Sunday, protests and sit-ins were held in several European and US cities to show solidarity with the people of Kobane.
