ISIS: Islamic State Facing ‘War Of Attrition’ It Likely Can’t Win In Fight For Kobane

ISIS, also known as the Islamic State, among other things, has ground to a halt in their significant, and symbolic, effort to conquer the key Syrian border town of Kobane in Iraq.

Agence France-Presse (AFP) reports that the Islamic State group, ISIS, has bogged down and is now stuck in a “war of attrition” in Kobane. Kurdish fighters and U.S.-led air strikes continue to inflict damage on the increasingly crippled Islamic terrorist group’s militants.

In September, Kobane looked as if it would fall into the hands of ISIS, but in the wake of two months of fighting, the major ISIS offensive finds itself having run into a stubborn breed of Kurdish fighters, many of whom are women, that has stopped their advance.

The failure of ISIS jihadists to quickly capture Kobane is already a symbolic victory for Kobane’s defenders, and as the battle for Kobane continues, it looks increasingly unlikely that ISIS will regain its lost momentum.

“Several weeks ago, it looked like Kobane would fall, but it is now clear that it will not,” a French expert on jihadist movements, Romain Caillet, told AFP. “(ISIS) controls more than half of the town but is unable to advance further.”

ISIS went into the fight for Kobane seemingly brimming with confidence after a Summer full of military successes, and the slaughtering of civilians across Syria and Iraq.

The Islamic terrorist group wasn’t alone in its belief that Kobane could soon be theirs when they launched their mid-September attack; both the United States and Turkey warned that Kobane was vulnerable and in extreme danger.

Even more ominous, ISIS first attacked and invaded several villages surrounding Kobane, reaching the gates of the town on October 6, sending thousands of civilians fleeing across the Turkish border to escape the notoriously heinous Islamic militants.

But even with the formidable arsenal they’d absorbed from retreating Iraqi and Syrian troops, and establishing a foothold as far in as central Kobane, ISIS was ground down and halted by the fierce Kurdish fighters backed by the U.S.-led pummeling of ISIS targets.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reports that over 600 ISIS members have been killed, while the Kurdish ranks have lost 370 fighters in the battle for Kobane, which before being attacked had a population of about 150,000 people.

According to the director of the Britain-based Observatory, Rami Abdel Rahman, “(ISIS) now faces a war of attrition that is costing it more than its Kurdish adversaries.”

The Observatory, which monitors fighting in Syria via a network of local sources, also noted that Kurdish forces had strangled out a key ISIS supply route on Wednesday.

Caillet says that the initial success ISIS enjoyed upon entering Kobane soon turned into a “terrible trap,” when each time it would advance and seize territory or a building, ISIS militants positioning themselves there would become the subject of the U.S.-led airstrikes and be killed.

The fight for Kobane has also turned into “Urban warfare,” says Abdel Rahman, dividing the town in two, with ISIS snipers planted on rooftops in the areas of Kobane that they control, and other ISIS militants on the “front lines.”

The situation seems to favor the Kurdish defenders and their Peshmerga reinforcements who, along with their “high morale,” also benefit in the fight from ISIS having to send many of its militants to the frontlines, leaving behind areas already under their control, but now vulnerable to attack.

“This is making the (ISIS) group increasingly nervous,” said Abdel Rahman. Kobane defenders even believe that they could soon drive ISIS all the way out of the town.

Adding to this notion is Kurdish journalist Farhad Shami, who said from his front line vantage point, “We are witnessing the defeat (of ISIS in Kobane).”

A top U.S. General, Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, visited Iraq this week and showed optimism that the tide was starting to turn against ISIS, telling troops there that the U.S. military had helped Iraqi and Kurdish forces “pull Iraq back from the precipice… And now, I think it’s starting to turn. So well done.”

[Image via the The Telegraph]