ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – A female Kurdish commander in the embattled city of Kobane in Syrian Kurdistan killed an unknown number of Islamic State (ISIS) fighters in a suicide attack on Sunday.
The London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said the woman, who was from a unit of the People’s Protection Units (YPG), broke into an ISIS bastion around the eastern outskirts of Kobane, or Ayn al-Arab in Arabic.
She clashed with enemy fighters, fired grenades and then detonated herself with a grenade.
SOHR added that clashes continue between the two sides around dozens of points around Kobane, with the ISIS in possession of some 350 villages around the city.
ISIS is reported to be on the very outskirts of the city, reportedly approaching in a three-pronged attack.
This is the first time that a female Kurdish fighter has been reported to have carried out a suicide attack against the Islamic militants.
Kobane, a stronghold of Syrian Kurds, has been under intensified attacks by ISIS for a fortnight.
Kurdish Syrian leaders have complained that the international community, which has rushed to the help of Kurds in northern Iraq, has ignored the plight of Syrian Kurds, who have stood virtually single-handedly stood up to the ISIS for the past three years.
More than 160,000 refugees from Kobane and its surrounding areas have fled the homes, most washing across the border to Turkey.
Ankara, which is opposed to the YPG for its links to its own outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) has not acted upon helping the Kurds and has even stopped Turkish Kurdish from going to fight to defend Kobane.
There have been two rounds of US air strikes against the ISIS near Kobane in the past two weeks, but these failed to halt the jihadi advance.
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