Kurdish officials presented the battle for Kobani, a border town between Syria and Turkey, as going entirely in their favor tonight, claiming that ISIS has completely retreated from the town itself, and that the only fighting now is on the outskirts.
Yet the battle seems far from over, as ISIS has repeatedly pushed the Kurdish defenses in recent weeks. Kurdish fighters continue to flock to Kobani as well, suggesting they don’t believe the fight is really almost over.
And even the current optimism isn’t changing the US assessment, with Gen. Lloyd Austin saying it is still “highly possible” that ISIS will take the town, despite the US focusing virtually all of its warplanes on the area.
ISIS, as usual, is adapting, with Austin reporting ISIS fighters have stopped traveling in large, easy to target convoys and are avoiding radio communications in the hopes of making it more difficult for the US to strike them.