page_title: Kobanî
section_title: Siege by ISIL
hierarchical_section_title: Kobanî / History / Syrian Civil War / Siege by ISIL
caption_attribution_description: English: A view point of the city Kobanê, in Syrian Kurdistan, during the bombardment of ISIL targets by US-led forces, The photo has been taken from Turkish-Syrian border (Suruç). Photo: M. Akhavan / Persian Dutch Network فارسی: نمایی از کوبانی در کردستان سوریه در زمان بمباران اهداف داعش توسط نیروهای به رهبری آمریکا. این عکس از منطقه سوروچ در مرز سوریه و ترکیه گرفته شده است. عکس: م. اخوان / شبکه ایرانیان هلند
context_page_description: Kobanî, officially Ayn al-Arab, is a Kurdish-majority city in northern Syria, lying immediately south of the Syria–Turkey border. As a consequence of the Syrian Civil War, the city came under the control of the Kurdish-majority People's Protection Units militia in 2012 and is now the administrative center of the Euphrates Region of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria.
  From September 2014 to January 2015, the city was under siege by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. Most of the eastern parts of the city were destroyed and most of the population fled to Turkey. In 2015, many returned and reconstruction began.
  During the 2019 Turkish offensive into north-eastern Syria, the Syrian Democratic Forces agreed on the deployment of Syrian Army and Russian Military Police troops in the city, in a bid to stop Turkey from invading the city.
  Prior to the Syrian Civil War, Kobanî was recorded as having a population of close to 45,000. The majority of inhabitants were Kurds, with Arab, Turkmen, and Armenian minorities.
context_section_description: The People's Protection Units (YPG) took control of Kobanî on 19 July 2012. The Syrian authorities in Kobanî and other Kurdish towns evacuated the government offices and centers without any fighting taking place between the Syrian and Kurdish forces. Since July 2012, Kobanî has been under Kurdish control. The YPG and Kurdish politicians anticipated autonomy for the area, which they consider part of Rojava. After similar less intense events earlier in 2014, on 2 July the town and surrounding villages came under a massive attack from fighters of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. On 16 September, ISIL resumed its siege of Kobanî with a full-scale assault from the west and the south of the city.
  Kobanî Canton had been under attack by ISIL militants for several months. In September 2014, militants occupied most of the Kobanî region, seizing more than 100 Kurdish villages. As a consequence of the ISIL occupation, up to 200,000 Kurdish refugees fled from Kobanî Canton to Turkey. Turkish authorities did not allow the refugees to enter with any vehicles or livestock that they had.
  In captured villages, militants committed massacres and kidnapped women. IS militants, however, were not able to occupy all of Kobanî itself, as the YPG and YPJ forces managed to defend a part of Kobanî and later several nearby settlements. After weeks of isolation, which resulted from Turkey's preventing arms and fighters from entering the town (which in turn was due to the general hostility of the Turkish establishment towards Kurds with any links to the PKK), the US-led coalition began to target ISIL with a larger number of airstrikes. From September 2014 through January 2015, hundreds of airstrikes struck ISIL fighters and leveled most of the administrative buildings and houses in the city center, helping to stop the ISIL advance. On 20 October there were reports that Turkey, under significant US pressure, would allow Kurdish fighters from Iraqi Kurdistan to cross into Kobanî. About 150 Kurdish troops were admitted on 29 October, which then began to turn the tide of the siege in favor of the Kurds.
  The YPG forced ISIL to retreat from Kobanî on 26 January 2015, thus lifting the siege. The city is currently under YPG control.
caption: Kobanî during the bombardment of ISIL targets by US-led forces. Photo taken from Turkish-Syrian border at Suruç,Suruc, Turkey showing refugee camp in the middle distance (October 2014)
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