Kobani official: most of the dead were civilians

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region -  A Kurdish official based in Kobani has described a city gripped with fear after Thursday’s ISIS attacks and has called on Peshmerga and YPG forces to protect the region.
 
Ali Ibrahim, a member of the central committee the Kurdistan Democratic Party- Syria, also recounted the day’s brutal attacks and bombing that left in his estimate 50 civilians killed in Kobani and 10 villagers executed in nearby Bakha Botan.
 
Other Rudaw reports put the number of casualties in both places at 45 dead and more than 75 wounded.
 
“At about 5am this morning a group of ISIS terrorists used Free Syrian Army and YPG uniforms to enter the city. We don’t have a precise number of how many entered. The terrorists also took over  Bakha Botan village and committed a massacre,” Ibrahim said.
 
Ibrahim said there was a car bomb that was detonated by remote control at checkpoint on the Turkish border. He said most of those killed were shot at random by ISIS gunmen and most were civilians.
 
“Fear is everywhere in the city. Many people tried to escape. Four thousand people tried to enter Turkey but Turkish soldiers have not allowed them to cross the border,” he told Rudaw in Erbil.
 
Ibrahim said there are roughly 25,000 people now living in Kobani, and estimated that 20 percent of those people are original residents and the rest are refugees.
 
He said the local YPG, or People’s Protection Unit’s, scrambled to defend the city. The YPG, with help from the Peshmerga and airstrikes from the US-led coalition to fight ISIS liberated the city in January after four months of heavy fighting.
 
“Once they entered the city the fighting between the groups began. They tried to take over a hospital but they couldn’t take it. There is fighting there now,” he said.  
 
Ibrahim continued: “On the west side of Kobani ISIS entered a secondary school and their snipers took up positions on the roof. It is a tall building and in a strategic location.”
 
He said the situation is mostly stable except for gunfights in certain neighborhoods and ISIS snipers still on position in the upper floors of buildings.
 
Ibrahim said the key to the fight against ISIS is unified efforts from all Kurds and Kurdish political parties.
 
“I call on the Peshmerga and the YPG to protect the region.”