A rights group says the Kurdish forces battling the Takfiri ISIL militants in the northern Syrian city of Kobani have advanced in the heart of the flashpoint city and expelled the terrorists from several buildings.
The Britain-based so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported on Tuesday that the progress came after the US-led military coalition launched four airstrikes and pounded the ISIL positions in the center of the city, which is known in Arabic as Ain al-Arab.
It further noted that units of the People’s Protection (YPG) (a Kurdish force) staged a “special operation,” during which they captured six buildings used by the ISIL members.
The Kurds “captured a large amount of weapons and ammunition, including RPG (rocket-propelled grenade) rounds, light weapons, sniper guns and thousands of heavy machine gun rounds,” the Britain-based group said.
On Saturday, Kurdish forces had managed to drive the ISIL militants out of their strongholds in the eastern and southern parts of Kobani.
Earlier, Idris Nassan, a local official in the flashpoint city, said Kurdish fighters, with the assistance of Iraqi Peshmerga fighters, who crossed into Kobani on October 31, recaptured the strategic hill of Mistanour and the road that runs along the side of the hill.
The so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on November 9 that more than 1,000 people had been killed in the fighting in Kobani since the beginning of the battle in mid-September.
As a result of the violence, more than 200,000 Kobani residents have also fled across the border to Turkey.
The ISIL terrorists currently control parts of Syria and Iraq. They have committed terrible atrocities in both countries, including mass executions and the beheading of local residents as well as foreign nationals.
MP/HJL/KA
