![cover image](https://wikiwandv2-19431.kxcdn.com/_next/image?url=https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/75/Siege_of_Kobani_frontline_progression%252C_from_October_2014_to_January_2015.jpg/640px-Siege_of_Kobani_frontline_progression%252C_from_October_2014_to_January_2015.jpg&w=640&q=50)
Siege of Kobanî
2014 ISIL offensive in northern Syria during the Syrian Civil War / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The siege of Kobanî was launched by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) on 13 September 2014,[71] in order to capture the Kobanî Canton and its main city of Kobanî (also known as Kobanê or Ayn al-Arab) in northern Syria, in the de facto autonomous region of Rojava.
Siege of Kobanî | |||||||||
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Part of the Syrian Civil War, Rojava-Islamist conflict, and the American-led intervention in the Syrian Civil War | |||||||||
![]() A map showing the progression of the siege of Kobanî, from October 2014 to January 2015 | |||||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||||
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Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() (from 18 November 2014)[23] ![]() ![]() ![]() (until 18 November 2014)[26] |
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Units involved | |||||||||
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Strength | |||||||||
1,500–2,000 YPG & YPJ (Kurdish claims as of 1 November 2014)[47] |
9,000+ fighters (Kurdish claims)[52] 30–50 MBTs[53] 2 UAVs[54][55] | ||||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||||
YPG & YPJ: 562[56]–741[57] killed (3 MLKP)[39] FSA and Jabhat al-Akrad: 29[56]–72[16][58] killed Peshmerga: 1 killed (accident)[59][60] |
1,422[*][56]–2,000[61] killed (per SOHR) 2,000+[**] killed (per U.S.)[62] 1,068–5,000[**] killed,[63][64][65] 18 tanks destroyed[59][66] 2 drones shot down (per Kurds)[55] | ||||||||
Hundreds of civilians killed[56][67] Over 400,000 civilians fled to Turkey[68] | |||||||||
* Additional hundreds of deaths by airstrikes[69] ** 1,000+ by US-led Coalition airstrikes[70] |
By 2 October 2014, ISIL succeeded in capturing 350 Kurdish villages and towns in the vicinity of Kobanê,[72] generating a wave of some 300,000 Kurdish refugees, who fled across the border into Turkey's Şanlıurfa Province.[73] By January 2015, the number had risen to 400,000.[68] The Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) and some Free Syrian Army (FSA) factions (under the Euphrates Volcano joint operations room), Peshmerga of the Kurdistan Regional Government, and American and US-allied Arab militaries' airstrikes began to recapture Kobane.[74]
On 26 January 2015, the YPG and its allies, backed by the continued US-led airstrikes, began to retake the city, driving ISIL into a steady retreat. The city of Kobanê was fully recaptured on 27 January; however, most of the remaining villages in the Kobanî Canton remained under ISIL control.[2][75] The YPG and its allies then made rapid advances in rural Kobanî, with ISIL withdrawing 25 km from the city of Kobanî by 2 February.[76][77] By late April 2015, ISIL had been driven out of almost all of the villages it had captured in the Canton, but maintained control of a few dozen villages it seized in the northwestern part of the Raqqa Governorate.[3] In late June 2015, ISIL launched a new offensive against the city, killing at least 233 civilians,[78][79] but were quickly driven back.
The battle for Kobanî was considered a turning point in the war against Islamic State.[80] The siege was referred by some to be the "Kurdish Stalingrad".[81][82]