First Peshmerga killed in Kobane fighting

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region—The first Peshmerga soldier was killed in Kobane on Tuesday while fighting Islamic State (ISIS) militants in the Kurdish border city of Syrian Kurdistan (Rojava), a military doctor said.

Dr Izaddin Temo, a military doctor accompanying Kurdish Peshmerga forces in Kobane told Rudaw that Zeravan Akram “was killed from a bullet while doing his duty.”

Akram was the first Peshmerga to be killed in Kobane since the first troop deployment four months ago.

Since October the Kurdish government in Erbil has sent 450 Peshmerga soldiers to Kobane in three separate deployments to help the Peoples Protection Units (YPG) defend the Kurdish city against ISIS.

In four months of fighting several Peshmerga soldiers have been wounded in Kobane and returned with their teams to the Kurdistan Region.

In recent weeks the YPG and Peshmerga have made significant progress against ISIS militants and are now in control of more than %80 of the besieged city.