{"id":128897,"date":"2015-06-27T15:59:22","date_gmt":"2015-06-27T15:59:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/4cd.e16.myftpupload.com\/?p=128897"},"modified":"2015-06-27T15:59:22","modified_gmt":"2015-06-27T15:59:22","slug":"kurds-drive-is-from-border-town","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=128897","title":{"rendered":"Kurds drive IS from border town"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Islamic State (IS) militants have been driven out of the town of Kobane, on the Turkish border, Kurdish forces and activists say.<\/p>\n

IS launched a surprise assault on the long-contested town on Thursday, reportedly massacring civilians, including women and children.<\/p>\n

The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says 206 bodies were found, most with bullet wounds.<\/p>\n

Kurdish forces broke an IS siege of Kobane only in January.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, fighting is reportedly continuing in the Syrian city of Hassakeh, about 270km (180 miles) further east, which was also attacked by IS on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Troops loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and their allies are tackling the militants after fighting which, according to UN figures, saw some 60,000 people flee.<\/p>\n

Overall, in four years of armed conflict in Syria, more than 200,000 people have lost their lives and more than 11 million others – nearly half the population – have been forced from their homes.<\/p>\n

‘Last stand’<\/p>\n

Smoke could still be seen rising over Kobane on Saturday.<\/p>\n

Redur Xelil, spokesman for the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia, told Reuters news agency that around eight IS members had escaped north towards the Turkish border.<\/p>\n

“There are still search operations in neighbourhoods where they might be hiding,” he added. “The town is quiet now.”<\/p>\n

\"null\"<\/figure>\n

An activist in Kobane, Mustafa Bali, told AP news agency by telephone that Kobane had been “completely cleared”.<\/p>\n

“Kurdish forces are now combing the town looking for fighters who may have gone into hiding,” he added.<\/p>\n

As the civilian death toll rose during searches on Saturday, local journalist Rudi Mohammad Amin told AFP news agency more people were still unaccounted for.<\/p>\n

The militants, he said, had made their last stand in an apparently unoccupied boys’ secondary school.<\/p>\n

“The YPG detonated explosives outside of the school, then stormed it,” he said. “This military operation was carried out after ensuring that there were no civilians left in the school.”<\/p>\n

Unconfirmed reports say Kurdish civilians began returning to the town from across the border in Turkey on Saturday.<\/p>\n

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Civilians could be seen heading back towards Kobane<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Erdogan warning<\/figure>\n

IS launched its two-pronged offensive after the YPG cut off one of its major supply routes near the city of Raqqa.<\/p>\n

The city is the de facto capital of the IS “caliphate”, declared a year ago after the group captured large swathes of northern and western Iraq and parts of Syria.<\/p>\n

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has pledged never to allow Kurds to establish their own state in northern Syria.<\/p>\n

“I say to the international community that whatever price must be paid, we will never allow the establishment of a new state on our southern frontier in the north of Syria,” he said at a dinner on Friday night.<\/p>\n

The Turkish leader also rejected accusations that Turkey had colluded with IS in its attack on Kobane this week. “It is a big lie to accuse Turkey of having link with a terrorist organisation,” he said.<\/p>\n

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–<\/div>\n
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Source: BBC<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Islamic State (IS) militants have been driven out of the town of Kobane, on the Turkish border, Kurdish forces and activists say. IS launched a surprise assault on the long-contested town on Thursday, reportedly massacring civilians, including women and children. The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says 206 bodies were found, most with bullet […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":128901,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[14],"class_list":["post-128897","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-papa-owusu-ankomah"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128897","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=128897"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128897\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/128901"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=128897"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=128897"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=128897"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}