Kurdish fighters from Syria stopped an advance by Islamic State to the east of a largely Kurdish town near the Turkish border, a spokesman for the victorious group said.

The attack by IS was the group’s second attempt to take the town of Kobani since June, when it shot across northern Iraq, seizing the city of Mosul and Iraqi weapons and U.S.-made gear that “the Syrian Kurds say is being used against them,” The Guardian reports.

The paper continues:

“Fierce clashes are still under way but the Isis advance to the east of Kobani has been halted since last night,” Redur Xelil, spokesman for the YPG said via Skype.

He said the eastern front was the scene of the fiercest fighting in the offensive launched by Isis last Tuesday on Kobani, also known as Ayn al-Arab. More than 100,000 Syrian Kurds have fled its advance, many crossing the border into Turkey.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which tracks violence in the Syrian war, said Isis fighters had made no significant advance in the past 24 hours.

Read more here.

— Posted by Alexander Reed Kelly

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