Clashes continue in the
area between the militia, called the People's Protection Unit (YPG,) and
the ISIS fighters, according the London-based Syrian Observatory for
Human Rights.
The latest ISIS advance
in Syria has brought a swath of the country's north-central Kurdish
region under siege, with Kurdish leaders warning of another humanitarian
crisis without international intervention.
The Syrian Kurdish town
of Ayn al-Arab, or Kobani as it is known to the Kurds, is an island,
surrounded by ISIS on three fronts and the Turkish border to the north.
The town was already
mostly blockaded by ISIS, but in the past several days some 60 nearby
villages fell under ISIS control, according to the Syrian Observatory
for Human Rights.
ISIS, which refers to
itself as the Islamic State, took 39 villages on Friday alone as Kurdish
forces withdrew from their positions, the Observatory said.
Mostafa Baly, a Kurdish
activist inside Ayn al-Arab, told CNN on Saturday that there had been
fierce clashes between ISIS and the YPG 20 kilometers to the east and
south of the town, and 25 kilometers to the west.
"The conversation is no
longer about withdrawing from this village or taking control of that
place. For the People's Protection Unit it is about resisting the attack
by ISIS and defending 50,000 Kurds from a massacre," he said.
Hundred of Kurdish
fighters are streaming in from Turkey to join fighters on the front
lines and more continue to cross into the city as the minority prepares
for what it believes will be an existential battle.
"The Kurdish people do
not want to go to the refugee camps. We refuse to live in tents. the
only option is to stand strong and defeat ISIS," he said.
News of the Kurdish
fighters flooding to join the defense of Ayn al-Arab came as Turkey's
government announced that 49 hostages seized from the Turkish consulate
in Mosul, Iraq, had been freed after three months in captivity.
Source:CNN
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