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 The radical al Qaeda offshoot has been battling for more than two
weeks to seize the predominantly Kurdish town, driving 180,000
people into neighboring Turkey.
Air strikes by American and Gulf state warplanes have failed to halt
the advance of the Islamists, who moved to the outskirts of the town
over the weekend and were battling to secure a strategic hilltop in
the face of fierce resistance.
Despite the heavy fighting, which has seen mortars rain down on
residential areas in Kobani and stray fire hit Turkish territory, a
Reuters reporter saw around 30 people cross over from Turkey,
apparently to help with defense of the town.
"Fighting continues, they are also firing mortars at the heart of
the town. We have light weapons only," Esmat al-Sheikh, head of the
Kobani Defence Authority, said by telephone.
"If they enter Kobani, it will be a graveyard for us and for them.
We will not let them enter Kobani as long as we live. We either win
or die. We will resist to the end," Sheikh said as heavy and light
weapons fire echoed from the eastern side of town.
Ismail Eskin, a journalist in the town, said morale was still high
"because the people are protecting their own soil".
"They will not allow (Islamic State) to occupy Kobani," he said.
VILLAGES EMPTIED
Islamic State wants to take Kobani to consolidate a dramatic sweep
across northern Iraq and Syria, in the name of an absolutist version
of Sunni Islam, that has sent shockwaves through the Middle East.
Beheadings, mass killings and torture have spread fear of the group
across the region, with villages emptying at the approach of pick-up
trucks flying Islamic State's black flag.
One female Kurdish fighter near Kobani blew herself up on Sunday
after running out of ammunition, rather than be captured by IS, a
monitoring group and local sources said.
"They have ammunition, but it is so little," said Pawer Mohammed
Ali, a translator for the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD)
inside Kobani. "The PYD are just appealing to foreign forces for
ammunition because (Islamic State) is using heavy weapons, tanks and
mortars."
On Sunday, Islamic State released a video apparently showing its
fighters in control of radio masts on top of Mistanour hill, which
looks out over the town and would offer valuable high ground.
Reuters was not able to independently verify the contents of the
video.
Ali said fighting for control of Mistanour hill was continuing, and
denied reports that IS fighters were in the streets of Kobani. He
said Kurdish forces were holding them back but the situation in the
town, where water and power had been cut off, was increasingly
desperate.
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Turkish hospitals have been treating a steady stream of wounded
Kurdish fighters being brought across the frontier. Witnesses who
had fled Kobani said that old women were being given grenades to
throw, and young women with no fighting experience were being armed
and sent into battle. LITTLE HELP
Kobani's Kurds have so far received little help from elsewhere.
Turkey has given shelter to the bulk of the area's refugees, and its
doctors have treated the wounded, but it has given no suggestion
that it could join the fight against Islamic State, beyond gestures
of self-defense.
Over the weekend, President Tayyip Erdogan vowed to retaliate if
Islamic State attacked Turkish forces, and on Monday Turkish tanks
deployed along the border for the second time in a week, some with
guns pointing towards Syria, apparently in response to stray fire
crossing the frontier.
Still, Islamic State's release last month of 46 Turkish hostages,
and a parliamentary motion last week renewing a mandate allowing
Turkish troops to cross into Syria and Iraq, have raised
expectations that Ankara may be planning a more active role.
Its calculations are complex, however.
For three decades, Ankara has fought an armed insurgency by its own
Kurdish PKK militants demanding greater autonomy in Turkey's
southeast.
Analysts say it is now wary of helping Syrian Kurdish forces near
Kobani as they have strong links with the PKK and have maintained
ambiguous relations with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, to whom
Turkey is implacably opposed.
Against that are warnings from the leaders of Turkey's Kurds that
allowing Syria's Kurds to be driven from Kobani would spell the end
of Erdogan's delicately poised drive to negotiate an end to his own
Kurdish insurgency and permanently disarm the PKK.
(Reporting by Daren Butler in Mursitpinar and Mariam Karouny in
Beirut; Writing by Jonny Hogg; Editing by Kevin Liffey)
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