The situation in Syria. Heavy fighting on the city Koban – Money.pl

[Photo: PAP / EPA]

Jihadists of the Islamic State (IS ) tried tonight to enter the central Syrian city of Koban (Ayn al-Arab), near the border with Turkey, but Kurdish militants repelled their attack – informed the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

IS attacked from the south, trying to occupy the center of the city. However, after heavy fighting Kurdish militants repelled the attack – said the head of the Observatory, Rami Abdel Rahman.

From the entrance to the Koban on Monday Islamists took 40 percent. the Kurdish enclave. On Friday, the force IS won the general staff headquarters defenders. If the jihadists were able to control the entire city, it would mean the acquisition by them of control over the majority of the Syrian-Turkish border.

According to the Observatory this morning sporadic fighting in the south of the city, south-west and the east. Observatory reports that Kurdish militants carry out special operations in the east Koban, going to areas controlled by the IS and killing members of the group, and then withdrawing. Coalition states that the United States at the forefront of September 23 trying to stop the Islamic State offensive attacks from the air, carried out two raids before dawn in the east and south Koban.

These attacks, however, has not stopped the progress of the offensive Islamists. IS trying to gain the northern districts, to completely cut off the Koban from the nearby Turkish border, the only direction from which theoretically can still reach him meals in people and weapons.

From the beginning of the offensive IS nearby Koban of the city and the surrounding area fled approx. 300 thousand. people. 200 thousand. found refuge in neighboring Turkey. According to the UN special envoy to Syria, Staffan de Mistury still resides in approx. 700 civilians, mostly are elderly. Approx. 10-13 thousand. gathered at the border with Turkey. If the city is occupied by the Islamists, there will probably massacre – he warned.

On Friday Mistura also appealed to the authorities of Turkey, the Kurdish authorities to allow volunteers to cross the border with Syria, so they hurry to help Koban. Ankara does not want to agree to this, arguing that sending civilians to the war would be a crime.

Koban is one of the three enclaves in the north of Syria, whose governments exercise Syrian Kurds. The other two cantons included in Syrian Kurdistan, formed in November 2013, Al-Jazeera, in the province of Al-Hasaka, the north-east, and Afrin, situated in the province of Aleppo, in the north west.

The situation in Syria. Heavy fighting on the city Koban – Money.pl