No friends but the mountains — a look back at the Kurds of Kobane’s heroic stand against ISIS

The Kurdish town of Kobane (Kobani) on the Syrian-Turkish border was officially part of the Aleppo governate of northern Syria, though at the beginning of 2014 its location brought it under the administration of the de facto autonomous Kurdish canton of Rojava.

A small border town with a population of 40–50,000, in September of that year Daesh launched an attempt to take the town during which it became a byword for courage and defiance in the face of barbarism and butchery. The town’s inhabitants and defenders, in the shape of hundreds of fighters belonging to the Kurdish resistance movement, the YPG (The People’s Protection Units), found themselves under a sustained assault during a determined military offensive involving captured Iraqi tanks and heavy artillery. Within a few days Daesh’s offensive succeeded in penetrating the outskirts of the town, defended by men and women with only small and medium weapons. The situation was so grave that YPG spokesman, Redur Xelil, issued a plea for international assistance.

“The international community has to take action,” he announced. “If not, there will be a new genocide, but this time in Kobane.”