Tent city to house residents returning to war-flattened Kobane

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Authorities in Kobane are erecting hundreds of tents to house residents who have been returning to the war-flattened city despite official warnings of mines and other hazards, Firat News reported on Monday.

It said authorities were erecting a thousand-tent “city” to house the returnees and that residents were eagerly returning in large numbers.

Firat News, which is close to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) whose Syrian wing controls Kobane and other areas in Syrian Kurdistan (Rojava), quoted authorities as saying they were unable to stop residents from returning, despite warnings of danger.

Much of the city has been turned to rubble since Islamic State (ISIS) militants escalated an offensive in September against the city, which sits hard on the border with Turkey.

Residents fled in huge numbers, mostly to Turkey and the Kurdistan Region, as Kurdish forces stood up to an ISIS siege that ended after months of fighting that included near-daily air raids by coalition forces. Kurdish forces declared the city liberated on January 26.

The city remains heavily mined, authorities warn.

Firat News quoted several returning residents as saying they were ready to face the dangers and stay under any conditions, as long as they could live in Kobane.

Kobane had a pre-war population of some 200,000 residents, most of whom had fled under the ISIS assaults.

The city has become a symbol of Kurdish resistance, after a combined force of the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) and some 150 Peshmerga troops – backed by coalition air power – forced ISIS to retreat and abandon efforts of capturing the city.