Kurds celebrate Kobani 'liberation'

The Kurdish defenders of Kobani danced and sang on Tuesday as their fighters expanded their offensive on the town's outskirts in a bid to drive "IS" further out of the area. The Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) announced the "liberation" of most of Kobani from IS fighters on Monday.

A senior US State Department official, who briefed reporters on the condition that he not be quoted by name, said Kurdish fighters now controlled about 90 percent of the northern Syrian town, which is also known as Ayn al-Arab.

"ISIL is now, whether on order or whether they are breaking ranks, is beginning to withdraw from the town," he said, using an alternative name to refer to the self-proclaimed "Islamic State" group. However, he warned that it was still too early to declare "mission accomplished."

Observers have said about 1,200 IS fighters were killed in the four months of battling for Kobani, an estimate the State Department official appeared to confirm when he said that while he wouldn't get into "body counts," the overall number of IS fighters killed was "in the four figures."

Challenging the 'IS' narrative

In September, IS fighters advanced on the mainly Kurdish town in northern Syria after capturing hundreds of surrounding villages, sending tens of thousands of people fleeing across the nearby border to Turkey. The Kurdish forces defending Kobani gradually helped push back IS with the support of a US-led airstrikes campaign and reinforcements from Iraq's Kurdish peshmerga.

The defeat of IS in Kobani was also hoped to have another effect - challenging one of the narratives of the militant group, which has sought to portray itself to potential international recruits as a fearsome force rolling from one triumphal victory to the next.

"This entire notion of this organization which is on the march, inevitable expansion, (its) overall momentum has been halted at Kobani," the US official said.

He said IS had sent some of its best foreign fighters to Kobani, including Australians, Belgians, Canadians and Chechens, and that there had been reports of IS executing foreign fighters for refusing to deploy to the town as their losses began to mount.

An offshoot of extremist group al Qaeda, "Islamic State" has claimed vast areas of territory straddling Syria and Iraq since mid-2014, which they have declared a caliphate ruled under Sharia law.

Celebration and concern in Turkey

On Tuesday, some of the 200,000 refugees who had fled Kobani for Turkey flocked to the border to celebrate the victory by raising flags and chanting. According to the news agency AFP, some who tried to cross the frontier near Suruc were pushed back by Turkish security forces using tear gas and water cannons but one of Kobani's leaders, Idris Nassan, was able to make it back to the town. However, he said displaced residents should not return just yet.

"We don't have basic necessities for them. There is no food, no medicine. We do not have electricity or water," he told AFP by phone, adding that there was "massive destruction."

There were news reports from several other Turkish cities of Kurds there taking to the streets to celebrate the Kurdish forces' victory, in some instances clashing with police who attempted to break up the festivities.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said his country opposes the idea of an autonomous Kurdish-controlled area in northern Syria. Kurds have declared several independent cantons there since the beginning of the country's civil war.

"What is this? Northern Iraq and then northern Syria," Erdogan was quoted as saying by the Hurriyet newspaper, referring to Iraqi Kurdistan.

"There is no way we can accept this. I know the pressure on Turkey is great, but we have to protect our stance regarding this issue. If such things happen, then there will be many problems in the future," Erdogan said.

The Turkish government had been fighting a 30-year battle with the Kurdistan Wokers' Party (PKK) over the country's Kurdish minority, though a ceasefire and negotiations have begun in recent years.

se/bw (AP, Reuters, AFP, dpa)