FRI 29 - 3 - 2024
 
Date: Jan 27, 2015
Source: The Daily Star
ISIS ‘defeated’ in Ain al-Arab, Diyala
BEIRUT/ISTANBUL: Kurdish militiamen drove ISIS from the Syrian town of Ain al-Arab and raised their flags Monday, an activist group and Syrian state media said, although Washington said the four-month battle was not yet over.

Across the border in Iraq, meanwhile, a top army officer announced troops had “liberated” Diyala province from ISIS jihadis.

In Syria, Kurdish claims of an advance in Ain al-Arab, known in Kurdish as Kobani, on the frontier with Turkey, marked the culmination of a battle lasting more than four months in which nearly 1,800 people were killed.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) had “expelled all Islamic State fighters from Kobani and have full control of the town,” using the jihadi group’s latest name.

“The Kurds are pursuing some jihadis on the eastern outskirts of Kobani, but there is no more fighting inside now,” said the Observatory’s Rami Abdel Rahman. Kurdish forces were carrying out “mopping-up operations” against remaining ISIS forces in the Maqtala district, on the town’s eastern outskirts.

YPG spokesman Polat Jan also announced the news on Twitter, writing: “Congratulations to humanity, Kurdistan, and the people of Kobane on the liberation of Kobane.”

Mustafa Ebdi, an activist from the town, said the “fighting has stopped.” YPG forces were “advancing carefully in Maqtala because of the threat of mines and car bombs,” he added.

But the U.S. said the battle was continuing. “Kobani remains contested,” State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said.

The ISIS group “has put a great deal of resources into Kobani,” she told reporters. “They’re clearly not succeeding, and we are pushing them back. But I don’t have confirmation fully of it being a complete process.”

The Pentagon also said it could not confirm accounts from Kurdish militia and the Observatory that Kurdish fighters had full control of the town.

“I’m not prepared to say the battle is won. The battle continues, but friendly forces have the momentum,” spokesman Colonel Steve Warren told reporters.

Some ISIS supporters took to Twitter to say the fight for Ain al-Arab was still raging.

“I can see the YPG flag flying over Kobani. There are the sounds of jets flying above,” said Tevfik Kanat, a Turkish Kurd who rushed to the border with hundreds of others, including refugees from Ain al-Arab, after hearing about the advance.

“People are dancing and singing, there are fireworks. Everyone feels a huge sense of relief,” he said by telephone.

The Kurdish advance came after the Pentagon said the U.S.-led coalition fighting ISIS in Syria and Iraq had carried out 17 airstrikes against jihadi positions in Ain al-Arab within 24 hours.

The targets included “tactical units” and “fighting positions” as well as an ISIS vehicle and staging areas.

The loss of Ain al-Arab would be a significant defeat for ISIS.

The group has lost 1,196 fighters since it began its advance on the town Sept. 16, said the Britain-based Observatory.

At one point, the jihadi group had looked poised to overrun Ain al-Arab.

ISIS wielded sophisticated weapons captured from military bases in Syria and Iraq and committed hundreds of fighters to the battle.

But Kurdish forces gradually pushed back the jihadis with the help of the U.S.-led air raids and a group of fighters from Iraq’s Kurdish peshmerga forces.

Analysts say the loss of Ain al-Arab is both a symbolic and strategic blow for ISIS, which set its sights on the small town in a bid to cement its control over a long stretch of the Syrian-Turkish border.

Since the group emerged in its current form in 2013, it has captured large swaths of territory in both Syria and Iraq.

It has declared an Islamic “caliphate” in territory under its control, and gained a reputation for brutality, including executions and torture.

But its apparent failure in Ain al-Arab could put the brakes on its plans for expansion in Syria.

“Despite all that manpower, all that sophisticated weaponry, ISIS couldn’t get the city, so it’s a big blow for their plans and its a great achievement for the Kurds,” analyst Mutlu Civiroglu said.

“Kobani sets an example on the ground, showing that when you have skilled fighters on the ground with the support of airstrikes, this danger, these forces, can be stopped and eliminated.”

Civilians were largely spared in the fighting because they evacuated en masse, mostly across the border into Turkey, in the early stages of the battle.

Over the border in Iraq, the army announced another defeat for ISIS, with the recapture of about two-dozen villages in the eastern province of Diyala near the border with Iran.

“We announce the liberation of Diyala from the [ISIS] organization,” Staff Lt. Gen. Abdulamir al-Zaidi said.

“Iraqi forces are in complete control of all the cities and districts and subdistricts of Diyala province.”

The general said there would still be clashes against ISIS in the rural Hamreen mountains, however, which stretch across multiple provinces, including Diyala.

Iraq’s Shiite-led government, backed by U.S.-led airstrikes, has been trying to push back ISIS since it swept through northern Iraq in June, meeting virtually no resistance.

“We managed on Jan. 25 and after three days’ tough battle to defeat the terrorists in northern Muqdadiya and we cleansed all the villages of Daesh,” said Hadi al-Amri, head of the Badr Organisation, using a derogatory Arabic acronym for ISIS.

He told a news conference broadcast on state television Monday at least 58 soldiers and pro-government fighters were killed in the operation and 247 wounded.

About 65 ISIS fighters were also killed, Sadiq al-Hussaini, chairman of the security panel of Diyala’s provincial council, told Reuters.



 
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