The siege of Kobanî was launched by the Islamic State (IS) on 13 September 2014, in order to capture the Kobanî Canton and its main city of Kobanî (also known as Kobanê or Ayn al-Arab) in northern Syria, in the de facto autonomous region of Rojava.
By 2 October 2014, IS succeeded in capturing 350 Kurdish villages and towns in the vicinity of Kobanê, generating a wave of some 300,000 Kurdish refugees, who fled across the border into Turkey's Şanlıurfa Province. By January 2015, the number had risen to 400,000. The Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) and some Free Syrian Army (FSA) factions (under the Euphrates Volcano joint operations room), Peshmerga of the Kurdistan Regional Government, and American and US-allied Arab militaries' airstrikes began to recapture Kobane.
On 26 January 2015, the YPG and its allies, backed by the continued US-led airstrikes, began to retake the city, driving IS into a steady retreat. The city of Kobanê was fully recaptured on 27 January; however, most of the remaining villages in the Kobanê Canton remained under IS control. The YPG and its allies then made rapid advances in rural Kobanî, with IS withdrawing 25 km from the city of Kobanî by 2 February. By late April 2015, IS had been driven out of almost all of the villages it had captured in the Canton, but maintained control of a few dozen villages it seized in the northwestern part of the Raqqa Governorate. In late June 2015, IS launched a new offensive against the city, killing at least 233 civilians, but were quickly driven back.
The battle for Kobanî was considered a turning point in the war against Islamic State. The siege was referred by some to be the "Kurdish Stalingrad".
Background
During the Syrian Civil War, the People's Protection Units (YPG) took over Kobanî (Arabic: Ayn al-Arab) on 19 July 2012. Since then, the city has been under Kurdish control, while the YPG and Kurdish politicians exercise autonomy for what they call Rojava.
In August 2013, Islamic State, the al-Nusra Front, Ahrar al-Sham, the Suqour al-Sham Brigade, and the al-Tawhid Brigade announced that they would besiege Kobanî. However, infighting between the groups erupted in January 2014 and some of them began to align with the YPG under the name of the Euphrates Islamic Liberation Front. In March 2014, IS captured Sarrin and several other towns and villages from the YPG and the EILF. Clashes continued through May.
On 2 July 2014, the city and the surrounding villages came under attack from IS.
IS advance
On 15 September 2014, IS launched a massive offensive to take the Kobanî Canton and the city of Kobanî, pushing into the villages at the western and eastern borders of the Canton. On 17 September 2014, following the capture of a strategic bridge over the Euphrates on 16 September, IS launched a large offensive using tanks, rockets and artillery in the direction of Kobanî, and within 24 hours, captured 21 villages. The advance left Kobanî encircled by IS forces, and it also forced the remaining Free Syrian Army fighters to the southwest of the Kobanî Canton to retreat to the city of Kobanî. Two days later, IS captured 39 more villages, bringing their forces within 20 kilometers of Kobanî. 45,000 refugees crossed into Turkey, fearing an IS takeover of the region, while a number of refugees were stopped at the border and ordered to return to Kobanî by Turkish authorities. The inhabitants of 100 villages were evacuated after coming under continuous shelling, and dozens of civilians and YPG fighters were killed as the IS advance continued.
On 20 September, IS forces came within 15 kilometers of the city of Kobanî after capturing three more villages, and started bombarding areas within 10 kilometers of the city. Meanwhile, more than 300 Kurdish fighters reached Kobanî from Turkey as reinforcements. Senior Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) official Murat Karayilan appealed to Kurdish youth in Turkey to join Kurdish forces in Syria. During the day, three rockets exploded within Kobanî, spreading fear among its inhabitants. Since the start of the offensive, 34 civilians had been killed, while the number of refugees had reached 60,000.
By 21 September, IS militants captured 64 villages; 39 IS and 27 Kurdish fighters had been killed in the previous 48 hours. Kurdish forces evacuated at least 100 villages on the Syrian side after IS militants began their offensive against the Kurdish villages. IS troops came within 10 kilometers of the city and continued to advance, with the fighting concentrated in the southern and eastern suburbs of Kobanî, 13 kilometers from the city proper. The next day, a Kurdish spokesman reported that the IS advance east of the city had been halted during the previous night. Despite the stalled advance, IS forces shelled the center of the city, and clashes continued in the vicinity of the village of Mojik (about 6 km west of Kobanî) and the village of Alishar (7 km east of Kobanî). On the same day, Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus said that more than 130,000 Syrian Kurds fled across the border into Turkey, escaping an advance by IS jihadists.
On 24 September, IS forces continued their advance south of the city. This brought IS within 8 kilometers of the south of Kobanî, the closest they had been to the city since the offensive started on 15 September. IS had increased its forces in the Kobanî Canton to at least 4,000 by this time. During the advance, IS forces captured the villages of Robey and Tall Ghazal, and the nearby grain silos. In addition, an IS source claimed that their forces had also captured several villages to the west of Kobanî. The front line to the west had moved to the cluster of villages called Siftek, as more IS fighters and tanks arrived for the offensive during the previous day. The next morning, IS fighters were only 2 kilometers away, as clashes were continuing. By this point, IS controlled 75 percent of the Kobanî canton, while Kurdish forces only had control of the city of Kobanî, the smaller town of Shera, and around 15 villages nearby.
On 26 September, IS troops captured a hill from which YPG fighters had been attacking them in recent days, 10 km (6 miles) west of Kobanî. IS also captured a village about 7 km to the east of Kobanî.
Coalition airstrikes and Kobanî besieged
On 27 September, US-led coalition planes bombed the area around Kobanî for the first time, targeting positions in the village of Alishar, 4 kilometers from the city, which was used as a command and control center by IS. Despite the coalition airstrikes against frontline IS positions, they were still able to begin shelling the city of Kobanî, wounding several people. The US' initial reluctance to launch airstrikes to help the Kurdish city was believed be caused by its unwillingness to upset Turkey, who preferred a Kurdish defeat.
By 28 September, 1,500 Kurdish fighters coming from Turkey reinforced the Kurds in Kobanî. The next day, IS forces approaching from the south and the southeast came within 5 kilometers of the city, while Kobanî faced sustained bombardment for a second day. The next day, IS troops approaching from the east advanced within 2–3 kilometers of Kobanî. During the fighting, the Kurds reportedly destroyed two IS tanks. IS fighters also captured the village of Siftek, to the west, and used it to stage attacks on Kobanî itself. The village of Kazikan was also captured.
On 1 October, Islamic State forces advanced southeast of Kobanî and on the western front, from where Kurdish forces retreated. This resulted in IS troops capturing one of the final villages on the outskirts of Kobanî, and approaching to within one kilometer of the town's entrance. At this point, Kurdish fighters in Kobanî were reinforcing their positions with sandbags to prepare for potential house-to-house fighting. By evening, amid a sharp shortage of weapons, Kurdish forces withdrew from the city suburbs, as IS forces continued their advance. As IS forces entered the suburbs of Kobanî, some refugees reported torture, rape, murder, and mutilation at the hands of IS. IS militants were reportedly beheading Kurdish fighters, including women.
By 2 October, IS forces had captured 350 of the 354 villages around Kobanî, and were positioned only hundreds of meters to the south and southeast of the city. Intense firefights had erupted that day, resulting in 57 IS deaths in the east of the city, while an Iraqi IS commander and eight other militants were killed in the southern sector.
The next day, IS militants took control of Kobanî's southern and eastern entrances and exits. They had also taken a strategic hill and a radio tower, which overlooked the town. Later, a Kurdish fighter reported that IS militants had entered the city's southwestern fringes, and that fighting was ongoing. The US-led coalition conducted at least seven air sorties against IS targets around Kobanî within five days, until 2 October, when the US didn't carry out any strikes, before reportedly carrying out further strikes late on 3 October.
During the night of 3/4 October, an IS attempt to breach the city was repelled. Coalition airstrikes continued on 4 October, targeting IS logistics, units, artillery positions, and a personnel carrier. By this point, the city was essentially empty, as nearly all residents, except the defenders, fled to Turkey. The last foreign journalist also left on 4 October. In all, some 90% of the region's population had evacuated.
Battle for Kobanî city
Fighting in Kobanî
First week
On 5 October, IS managed to capture the southern side of Mistanour Hill outside Kobanî city, and a Kurdish activist said if IS captured the hill, it would give them easy access to the city. The clashes at Mistanour involved hand-to-hand fighting. For the first time, a Kurdish female fighter (Deilar Kanj Khamis, also known by the nom de guerre Arin Mirkan) blew herself up in a suicide attack on an IS position, killing 10 IS fighters. Later, after seizing full control of Mistanour Hill, IS militants entered the southeastern edge of Kobanî, and street-to-street fighting began. This was the first time the jihadists had entered the city proper itself. IS managed to break through Kurdish defenses, after 30 of their fighters raced across the open fields at the city's eastern edges. The IS fighters were backed up by snipers, heavy machine gun fire, and shelling from Mistanour Hill.
On 6 October, the jihadists penetrated about 100 meters into the city, and an IS flag was raised on top of a four-story building in southeastern Kobanî, shortly after which another was raised on top of the nearby Mistanour Hill that had been captured the previous day. By this time, the number of IS militants deployed to the Kobanî Canton had increased to 9,000. The militants then made an attempt to advance further, but while entering Street 48, they were ambushed by People's Protection Units (YPG) fighters, and 20 jihadists were killed. Throughout the day, fighting raged for control of the Maqtala al-Jadida and Qani Arab districts, which ended with IS forces capturing both neighborhoods, as well as the industrial zone of Kobanî.
By the morning of 7 October, Kurdish forces managed to expel IS fighters from most of the eastern part of Kobanî that they had captured during the previous night, although IS fighters were still present in parts of the eastern neighborhoods. Meanwhile, IS forces captured several buildings on the southern side of the city, as well as a hospital under construction on the western side. The Kurdish success in the eastern part of town came after several U.S. airstrikes during the night and morning targeted IS positions and destroyed a tank, three technicals, and an IS unit, and damaged a tank and one technical. IS anti-aircraft artillery was also hit.
On 8 October, Kurdish fighters expelled IS forces from most of their previous gains in the city, following a new round of U.S. airstrikes that targeted the rear positions of the IS fighters. One of the targets hit was a concentration of IS fighters near a mosque in the eastern part of the city. However, despite the airstrikes, the jihadists soon launched a new assault in the eastern part of Kobanî, as IS reinforcements arrived, allowing them to push 50–70 meters west of the industrial zone, capturing the market area. By evening, IS militants had advanced an overall 100 meters towards the city center. Meanwhile, Kurdish fighters captured Sh'ir on the western outskirts of Kobanî.
On 9 October, IS forces were in control of more than a third of the city, including all of the eastern areas, a small part of the northeast, and an area in the southeast. IS also captured the Kurdish police headquarters, which they had targeted the previous night with a large suicide truck-bomb. The clashes in that area left a high-ranking Kurdish police commander dead. The captured police station was then targeted by US-led coalition aircraft and destroyed. To create a smoke screen from coalition planes, IS fighters started setting fire to buildings, and towers of black smoke burned for hours on the top of Mistanour Hill. Later, it was reported that Kurdish fighters made advances against IS in the eastern part of the town, while FSA fighters attacked IS forces from the rear, inflicting heavy losses. According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), Kurdish forces managed to besiege a group of IS fighters in the police headquarters. The clashes around the building left 11 IS fighters killed, and four were captured by the Kurds. At this point, Kurdish forces were faced with the risk of running out of ammunition.