At least 100 militants from the ISIL terror group have been killed in three days of clashes over Syria’s border city of Kobani, also known as Ain al-Arab in Arabic.
The so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Saturday that the fatalities raised the total number of ISIL Takfiris killed in the ground battle for the strategic city to 576 since fighting there broke out on September 16.
According to the London-based group, the militants had come from Aleppo and Raqa provinces to participate in the fight for Kobani, which is being defended by members of the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG).
Fifteen YPG fighters, meanwhile, lost their lives in skirmishes in Kobani on Friday, while another 11 Takfiris were killed in air raids by a US-led coalition in both Kobani and Raqa province.
The development comes as Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga forces, armed with heavy weaponry, including anti-aircraft machine guns and mobile rocket launcher, have started entering Kobani to join the battle against ISIL.
On Friday, a group of 150 fighters from Iraq’s Kurdistan Regional Government headed towards Turkey’s border crossing with Syria in the southern region of Morshid Pinar.
Reports further said the Syrian Kurds, lining the road to the border, welcomed the Peshmerga fighters who waved their rifles in the air.
Kobani and its surroundings have been under attack since mid-September, with the ISIL militants capturing dozens of nearby Kurdish villages and killing hundreds of people. More than 200,000 people have also fled across the border into Turkey.
