Kurdish Forces Fight Off ISIS Onslaught Near Syrian Border Town Of Kobane

kurds fleeing isis — Syrian Kurds wait behind the border fence to cross into Turkey near the southeastern town of Suruc in Sanliurfa province, September 19, 2014. Several thousand Syrian Kurds began crossing into Turkey on Friday fleeing Islamic State fighters who advanced into their villages, prompting warnings of massacres from Kurdish leaders. Islamic State (IS) fighters have seized villages in northern Syria over the past two days and are besieging the mainly Kurdish town of Ayn al-Arab, known as Kobani in Kurdish, on the Turkish border. reuters/Stringer

Kurdish peshmerga fighters foiled an attempt by militants of the Islamic State group to capture the northern Syrian border town of Kobane, also known as Ayn al-Arab, according to an Al Jazeera report.

“Fierce clashes are still under way but the (ISIS) advance to the east of Kobani has been halted since last night,” Redur Xelil, spokesperson for the Kurdish militia Yekineyen Parastina Gel, or YPG, told Al Jazeera, adding that Kurdish forces continued to fight off militants of the Islamic State group, formerly known as ISIS, who had laid siege to a village east of Kobane.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights also confirmed that Islamic State fighters had made no significant advance in the last 24 hours, Reuters reported. This is the Islamic State group’s second attempt to capture the Kurdish-dominated city of Kobane since June, according to media reports.

Meanwhile, nearly 130,000 Syrian refugees fleeing the advance of the Islamic State group have crossed into Turkey in the last four days, including a huge number of Kurds, Associated Press, or AP, reported Monday, citing Turkey’s Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus.

“I hope that we are not faced with a more populous refugee wave, but if we are, we have taken our precautions,” he reportedly said, adding that Turkey was prepared to face the “worst case scenario.”