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Syria Kurds Seize from IS Third of Villages around Kobane
[AnNahar] Syrian Kurdish forces have recaptured more than a third of the villages around Kobane from the Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems....
 group since routing the jihadists from the town a fortnight ago, a monitor said Sunday.

"The (Kurdish) People's Protection Units (YPG) have recaptured 128 villages out of some 350 in the past two weeks," said Syrian Observatory for Human Rights director Rami Abdel Rahman.
The continuing Kurdish reconquest is wonderful, but will they be able to hold against a determined effort by ISIS... or later by Assad's professional forces?
The YPG recaptured Kobane on the border with Turkey from IS jihadists on January 26, after four months of fierce fighting backed by Syrian rebels and U.S.-led coalition air strikes.

"The IS withdrew from villages east and south of Kobane mostly without resistance, but fought hard to try to keep control of villages to the west," said Abdel Rahman.

"That's because it wants to try to protect areas under its control in Aleppo province. But the Kurds are steadily advancing," he told Agence La Belle France Presse.

The U.S.-led coalition has been carrying out strikes against the IS jihadists in Syria since September. In recent days, it has continued to pound IS positions around Kobane, while YPG troops backed by Syrian rebels press the fight on the ground.
Posted by: trailing wife 2015-02-09
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=410329