Over a month in, the fight with ISIS over the Syrian Kurdish border town of Kobani (Ayn al-Arab in Arabic) continues to rage, with the influx of Peshmerga fighters slowing ISIS a bit, but not decisively changing the conflict.
The Syrian Kurdish factions in charge of the defense of Kobani have new problems on their hands, however, as they warn the town of Afrin, one of the few Kurdish holdout towns further west, is set to become “another Kobani.”
It’s not another battle with ISIS, either, so there’s no chance that a fight over Afrin could take some of the pressure off Kobani, Instead, Afrin, is surrounded by fighters from Jabhat al-Nusra, the al-Qaeda faction the US has been targeting.
In the past, Nusra has mostly ignored the Kurds and other “moderate” Sunni Arab factions, but US airstrikes have them interested in targeting US allies in retaliation, and that means in this case the Kurds. Nusra has been making a run at several towns and villages across the northwest of the country.