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TWO Islamic State (Isis) black flags flying on a tall building and a nearby hill at the eastern entrance to Kobane suggested yesterday that Kurdish defence lines may have been breached.
This would be a major blow to the People’s Protection Units (YPG) that repelled a wide-ranging assault on Sunday in which dozens of fighters on each side died.
Kobane has been under attack since mid-September, with Isis militants capturing dozens of nearby Kurdish villages but being frustrated in their threat to pray in Kobani mosque by the first holiday of Eid.
The YPG said that there had been 50 points of clashes around Kobane on Sunday, adding that 74 Islamic State fighters as well as 15 YPG defenders were killed.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which gathers information from anti-government activists inside Syria, said that 27 jihadists and 19 Kurds had been killed, making it one of the deadliest days since the latest round of fighting began three weeks ago.
“They are using tanks, artillery and all kinds of weapons they captured in Iraq and Syria,” said Kurdish official Nasser Haj Mansour of Isis.
Observatory director Rami Abdurrahman said that one attack against Isis had been carried out by a Kurdish woman fighter who blew herself up, killing 10 of the enemy.
The YPG statement identified her as Deilar Kanj Khamis, better known by her military name Arin Mirkan, a member of the Women’s Protection Units (YPJ).
Mr Haj Mansour said that she had stayed behind when Kurdish fighters withdrew from a position on the strategic hill of Mashta Nour near Kobane, attacking them with rifle and grenades and eventually blowing herself up.
The Kurds then recaptured the position, he said.
“If necessary, all our female and male fighters will become Arin. The attacks by mercenaries of Daesh (Isis) against Kobane will not be allowed to achieve their goals,” he insisted.
At least 14 Turkish army tanks took up positions yesterday on a hilltop near Kobane on their side of the border, but they did nothing to substantiate Ankara’s pledge to prevent Isis forces from taking the town.
