Locations destroyed by vehicle-borne explosives are located one block from the Turkish border crossing, further indicating collusion by the Turkish regime with the Islamic State in their common battle against the Kurds, who reside in an ethnically diverse region spanning the modern-day borders of Syria, Turkey, Iraq, and Iran. Locals are adamant that some of the attacks originated from Turkish soil, citing as evidence the northern-most buildings that show a majority of their damage on their northern faces. With Kobane surrounded on three sides by the Islamic State, resistance forces of the YPG and YPJ (Women’s Protection Units, KU Yekîneyên Parastina Jin, AR: وحدات حماية المرأة) had to contend with a relentless barrage of light and heavy weapons attacks, improvised artillery, and car bombs. Bombed-out buildings litter the landscape of Kobane – November 2017 Tens of thousands of residents fled into Turkey and neighboring regions in the last years, as schools, businesses, shops, bridges, sanitation, utilities and other infrastructure were impacted. See for detailed data on civilian casualties from airstrikes in Iraq and Syria. Much of the city and region has been destroyed by on-the-ground fighting as well as the massive air bombing campaigns by Western forces, formally designated as Combined Joint Task Force-Operation Inherent Resolve ( CJTF-OIR), which includes France, the UK, Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands, Australia, the USA, and Canada. The region was freed from ISIL control by a coalition of forces led by the YPG. Graffiti on a concrete wall pitted with bullet holes and bomb fragments reads “Kobanî warê” – November 2017 The residents of Kobane who chose not to flee, suffered through ISIL attacks, kidnappings, and massacres. Many residents of the area fled, seeking protection from the YPG. The Kurdish enclave of Kobane city, as well as the greater Kobane Canton, were besieged by Islamic State fighters in 2014 and for several months, until early 2015, the Islamic State controlled the region.
The in-depth report gave recent historical context with a focus on northern Syria and the factors that gave rise to the modern Turkish-Kurdish side of the Syrian conflict, as well as a wealth of updated maps and a video from the bombed out YPG/YPJ headquarters on Qereçox Mountain. In late October, we published our first report from the ground in northern Syria, As Course of War Turns, Turkey Challenges Democratic Federation of Northern Syria (Rojava). Rojava is the Kurdish region of northern Syria that has three “ non-contiguous autonomous areas or cantons” established by the Democratic Union Party, whose political ideology is based on jailed Kurdish leader Abdullah Öcalan‘s Democratic Confederalism, which posits that “ decision-making processes lie with the communities“. Since 2012, the Kobane Canton, which borders Turkey in northern Syria, has been one of the de facto autonomous cantons of Rojava, the Democratic Federation of Northern Syria, with military control organized under the YPG (People’s Protection Units, KU: Yekîneyên Parastina Gel, AR: وحدات حماية الشعب), the largest component of the SDF. The human death toll in the Syrian conflict in the past six years, as of early November, was estimated at exceeding 340,000. With over half of the country’s population displaced during the last few years and a majority of the infrastructure destroyed, estimates place at least a $300 billion price tag on rebuilding Syria. The following video presents various elements of life in Syria, such as displaced residents fleeing ISIL control, scoping out an ISIL holdout, clearing a booby-trapped building in Deir-ez-Zor, as well as rebuilding and creating new apartment blocks in Kobane. Unicorn Riot contributors visited the recovering cities of Kobane and Manbij in northeastern Syria as well as the grim frontline of armed conflict in Deir-ez-Zor, and obtained photographs from Raqqa. Meanwhile, residents are taking steps to re-inhabit the Kobane Canton and other areas recently gained from the Islamic State. Democratic Federation of Northern Syria – Communities across northern Syria have begun to rebuild following the cessation of six years’ worth of conflict that transformed once-thriving areas into bombed-out ghost cities.īattles between hardened fighters from the Islamic State of the Levant ( ISIL) continue around Deir-ez-Zor as units of the Syrian Democratic Forces ( SDF) watch over ISIL’s recently-captured former capital city of Raqqa.
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