OVER 50 VILLAGES NEAR KOBANI IN KURDS’ HANDS

Kobani, 15 Rabi’ul Akhir 1436/5 February 2015 (MINA)– Kurdish fighters who battle ISIS group around the Syrian key town of Kobani have so far liberated over 50 nearby villages.

The so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Wednesday that the Peshmerga forces have been faced with little resistance from the Takfiri militants, recently pushed out of the strategic town across from the Turkish border.

The observatory’s director Rami Abdel Rahman called the Kurds’ advance during the past week “speedy” with ISIS militants withdrawing “as soon as” the Peshmerga forces enter a village, Press TV quoted by Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA) as reporting.

The forces, also called the People’s Protection Units (YPG), recaptured Kobani on January 26 after nearly five months of fighting and since then battles to capture some 350 nearby villages have begun.

Since they reclaimed the town, 10 ISIS members have been killed in battles around Kobani, according to the UK-based observatory.

The ISIS currently control swathes of territory across Iraq and neighboring Syria.

Since 2011, Syria has been gripped by a deadly conflict that has so far left more than 200,000 people dead.

In 2014, over 76,000 people, including thousands of children, lost their lives in Syria, according to new figures. (T/P010/R04)

Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)

http://www.presstv.com/Detail/2015/02/04/396189/Over-50-villages-near-Kobani-liberated