Reports from Kurdish officials say that after 112 days of fighting they have finally expelled ISIS from the contested border city of Kobani (Ayn al-Arab in Arabic), and that the YPG militias are now fully in control.
YPG officials confirmed the takeover, and Idriss Nassan, the city’s deputy foreign minister (because apparently some cities have those) said there will be an official announcement of victory on Tuesday.
ISIS has launched several offensives against Kobani and so far failed to take the city, the last major Kurdish holding to their west. The final death toll of this latest battle was 979 ISIS and 324 YPG fighters.
Kobani’s value to ISIS is two-fold, as it is both a border crossing into Turkey (something all rebel factions covet) and would give ISIS contiguous control over a vast span of the border, and increasingly near to the city of Aleppo.
