Asia

Asia

IS meters away from Syria's Kurdish city

02 October 2014 21:49 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Militants from the Islamic State ( IS) group are only meters away from the Kurdish city of Kobane in northern Syria, as violent battles between Kurdish fighters and the armed group continue around the contested city, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported on Thursday, APA reports quoting Xinhua.

Intense clashes are raging between the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) and IS militants surrounding the city, the Observatory said.

According to the Syrian opposition human rights group, the YPG withdrew to the city's outskirts as IS fighters advanced from the western part of the city. Now the Islamist militants are only two or three km away from the western part of Kobane, while pushing forward into the eastern and southeastern parts of the city as well.

It said the YPG and other Kurdish militants are preparing for street fight tactics amid a "real fear" that the IS would carry out massacres if it succeeds in storming the Kurdish dominated city, which is also known as Ayn al-Arab, located on the borders with Turkey.

The Observatory reported that a large number of civilians refused to leave Kobane, preferring to "die defending it." It added that the IS has captured over 350 villages around Kobane since their wide-scale offensive has started 16 days ago to control the city.

The Observatory also reported the U.S.-led anti-terror coalition launched airstrikes against IS positions in the towns of Manbej and Bab in Aleppo province. So far, the U.S. airstrikes have done little to stem the flow of IS fighters streaming toward Kobane, in what some analysts say could create crises in northern Syria that could lead Turkey, which has recently hinted at military intervention in Syria, to create a buffer zone on the borders under the pretext of helping the Syrian refugees and protecting a Turkish shrine located inside Syria.

Since the IS started its bombardment of Kobane and the surrounding Kurdish towns and villages, tens of thousands of Kurds fled to the Turkish borders. Kurdish activists accused Turkey of aiding the IS in battling the Kurds in Kobane to create a pretext for military intervention and to establish a buffer zone.