1,500 Kurdish Fighters Join Forces Against IS İn Syria

Syrian Kurdish YPG militias have been battling IS militants in and around Kobani for weeks, bolstered by U.S.-led air strikes and — more recently — by the arrival of Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga forces. As well as besieging Kobani, IS militants have captured a number of villages around the town. In the first place, it is very unlikely that IS militants would report that the Kurds had retaken an important position unless it were true. The nature of the fighting in and around Kobani has meant that it is not possible to get a very clear picture of the state of the battle for the town. Kurdish militias tend to report dramatic gains, while IS militants are either silent or also report dramatic gains. However, there have been indications that Kurdish militias have been making some advances in the battle for Kobani. The statement said U.S. forces have conducted more than 135 air strikes against IS forces in Kobani. The Chechen IS militant also claimed that the Kurds had been assisted in their capture of the hill by American intelligence” and that the Kurdish forces had carried out their operation in the dead of night,” a sign that Kurdish militias are able to strategically outmaneuver IS to make gains. It said IS militants fired nearly 50 mortars at Kurdish areas, and two car bombs hit Kurdish positions on October 18. Erdogan said the dominant Syrian Kurdish party, the Democratic Union Party, is a "terrorist organization," just like the Turkish Kurdish rebel group it has been linked to, the Kurdistan Workers Party. Meanwhile, the Iraqi military said October 19 it had recaptured several areas from the IS group in a northern enclave as part of a major counterattack against the jihadists. Even the United States and Turkey warned in October that the town was teetering on the brink.