ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Kurdish forces have halted an advance by militants of the Islamic State (ISIS) on Kobane and are in control of most of the Syrian border town, Kobane’s top official said Thursday.
Anwar Muslim, head of the Kobane canton in Syrian Kurdistan (Rojava), said that the People's Protection Units (YPG) and the people of Kobane have most of the city under control. He added that morale is high.
Speaking to Rudaw by phone from Kobane, Muslim said that town officials have remained inside and will not be scared away by the ISIS.
"ISIS is using heavy weapons to bombard (the town), but YPG fighters are resisting and have halted their advance," he said.
ISIS militants launched a fresh offensive inside the Syrian Kurdish town on the Turkish border overnight, seizing control of a market area in the east, the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said earlier Thursday, after U.S.-led airstrikes appeared to have pushed the jihadists back earlier in the day.
From across the Turkish border, the sound of heavy gunfire and shelling could be heard late into the night from just across the frontier and plumes of black smoke could be seen rising from several parts of the Syrian town.
SOHR said that ISIS fighters had advanced up to 70 meters inside the eastern edge of Kobane, capturing the al-Hal market in the town's industrial zone, after receiving military reinforcements from the outside.
Muslim pleaded to the international community and the Kurdish parties to assist the besieged town.
"I ask the countries of the world and all the Kurdish parties and the Kurdistan Region to aid Kobane and clear it of ISIS," Muslim said.
Intensified US airstrikes all this week relieved some of the pressure on the town, which has been besieged for more than three weeks.
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