Kurdish fighters stop ISIS near Syrian border city

Kurdish fighters in Syria have said that they have managed to stop the progress of Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) fighters toward the northern city of Kobani, Al Arabiya News Channel reported on Monday.

Kurdish sources said that around 40 ISIS fighters had been killed in Kobani, which is also known as Ayn Arab.

The former ISIS advance around the area has created an influx of 130,000 refugees fleeing over the border into neighbouring Turkey.

Nawaf Khalil, a spokesman for Syria’s Kurdish Democratic Union Party, or PYD, told The Associated Press that the situation on the ground “is better than before.”

He added that the main Kurdish force in Syria, known as the People’s Protection Units, had pushed Islamic State fighters about 10 kilometers away from their previous positions east of Kobani.

Fight to the last man

“We will fight until the last gunman in Kobani,” Khalil said.

The situation at the Turkish side of the border was tense, with more clashes breaking out between Kurds wanting to cross to take aid to the Kobani region and police preventing them from reaching the area.

The nearby town of Suruc was flooded with refugees and armored military vehicles were moving.

“This is not a natural disaster... What we are faced with is a man-made disaster,” said Kurtulmus, the Turkish deputy prime minister.

“We don’t know how many more villages may be raided, how many more people may be forced to seek refuge. We don’t know,” he said. “An uncontrollable force at the other side of the border is attacking civilians. The extent of the disaster is worse than a natural disaster.”

(With the Associated Press)