IS captured Kurdish Kobane towns in northern Syria
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E-mail Xinhua, October 7, 2014
The Islamic State (IS) militants captured three neighborhoods in the predominantly Kurdish city of Kobane in northern Syria on Monday, the oppositional Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported.
The IS attacks on the neighborhoods of Kani Araban, Industrial City, and Maqtala al-Jadeeda in the eastern part of Kobane came after the terrorist group's intense clashes with the Kurdish militants of the People's Protection Unites, or YPG, according to the Observatory.
The UK-based watchdog group, which relies on a network of activists on ground, said hundreds of Kurdish people have fled Kobane toward the Turkish borders.
Meanwhile, intense battles are still going on between the Kurds and the IS militants at the southwestern entrance of Kobane as the IS fighters are trying to march on, said the Observatory.
Hundreds of Kurdish fighters have reportedly entered Syria through Turkey and Iraq to defend their fellow Kurds against massive IS offensive on predominantly Kurdish areas in northern Syria.
Kobane, also known as Ayn al-Arab, has been subject to ferocious attacks by IS militants over the past two weeks. IS fighters have succeeded in capturing hundreds of Kurdish villages around Kobane, forcing tens of thousands of people to flee.
Kurdish activists accused Turkey of working with the IS to empty the city of its residents so that it could impose a buffer zone on the Syrian side of the borders under the pretext of helping the refugees.
The U.S.-led anti-terror coalition has repeatedly struck the IS positions around Kobane in recent days, yet these operations have not been effective in suffocating the groups' continuous attacks.
Syrian Kurds have reached a deadlock in their fight against the IS militants, who have repeatedly tried to storm Kurdish dominated Syrian areas. Accounting for some 15 percent of the Syria's 23 million population, a majority of Kurds are now living in the northern part of the embattled country.
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