QAMISHLI, Syria (North Press) – Today marks the eighth annual anniversary of World Kobani Day where the whole world showed solidarity and sympathy with the predominant Kurdish city of Kobani in northern Syria which was then under attack by the Islamic State Organization (ISIS).
On August 3, 2014, ISIS unleashed a barbaric assault on the Yezidi Kurdish stronghold of Sinjar (Shengal) in the west of Mosul in the Nineveh province of Iraq. Three days later the extremist group announced it has controlled Sinjar.
The campaign in Sinjar was part of a notion then called “Remaining and Extending” a connotation that the announced “ISIS caliphate” was going to absorb large swathes of territories in Syria and Iraq.
On August 14, the group had another target announced, which was in Syria; Kobani, a city in east of the Euphrates River.
At the time Kobani (along with Afrin in the west and Jazira in the east) served as the third canton of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria, known as Rojava in Kurdish, beneath the Turkish border with Syria.
Being isolated from all parts, ISIS militants found no more difficulties in advancing on the city. Scattered villages in the countryside of Kobani fell one after another without putting up much resistance. The Kurdish fighters retreated to the city where the fighting became an epic of resistance by the Kurdish Peoples’ Protection Units (YPG) and the all-female units of Women Protection Units (YPJ).
Having heavy weapons seized from Iraqi army’s bases, ISIS militants were squeezing day after another the Kurdish fighters in the city bordering Turkey.
On October 13, the US military carried out air strikes on ISIS militants in the city. The US air strikes gave new hopes for the Kurds. The Kurds said the air strikes were helpful.
However, something more important was to take place few days later when a newly formed coalition led by the US air- dropped weapons to the Kurdish fighters besieged in the city. The Kurds were reinforced morally and militarily.
The Kurdish resistance, especially the feminist one, had its voice heard all over the world. Voices were rising for aid to the city under the attack.
Almost no residents remained in the city which became a bloody scene to street-to-street fighting between the Kurdish fighters and militants of the Islamic State.
November 1 was chosen as “World Kobani Day” a day for solidarity and sympathy with the Kurdish city. The day was recognized by many countries in memory of the city and fighters fell defending it.
In December, the Kurdish fighters – resuscitated by the aid delivered by the Barack Obama’s administration – expelled the extremist militants of the radical group from the city of Kobani. Kobani was announced a liberated city.
Though much of the city was destroyed in the fighting and the ensued air bombardment, Kobani has become an icon for resistance. It is the city that garnered much attention to the cause of the Kurdish people in Syria and conveyed a more disturbing image of a group that had already ravaged Sinjar.