Islam Times - Kurds' new gains bring 70% of Kobani under control: Observatory

Islam Times - Kurdish fighters have gained control over about 70 percent of Syria’s strategic town of Kobani across from the Turkish border, a Britain-based monitoring group says.

ISIL Takfiri militants have lost ground at the Kurdish town where they face forces of the People’s Protection Units (YPG), said the so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights on Wednesday.

The YGP forces made significant advances in their fight against the terrorists overnight on Tuesday.

The US-led coalition also launched five airstrikes near the town, whose southern and central parts are now under the fighters’ control along with most of the west in an area stretching up to the border.

Rami Abdulrahman, the foreign-backed observatory’s director, claimed airstrikes by the US-led coalition forces brought the Kurds closer to controlling the whole town.

Since late September, the US and some of its Arab allies have been conducting airstrikes against ISIL inside Syria without any authorization from Damascus or a UN mandate.

The ISIL terrorists currently control swaths of territory across Iraq and neighboring Syria where they have been committing heinous crimes.