133 days.

It took 133 days to force the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) out of the small, majority-Kurdish town of Kobane in northern Syria. Over four months of pure butchery, of back-and-forth gains that obliterated much of the area in a battle that many times looked like it was going to end in a resounding victory for ISIS.

For many weeks, Kurdish forces belonging to the People’s Protection Units (YPG), along with a contingent from the Free Syrian Army, desperately clung to positions around the border post leading to Turkey. First, ISIS took the high ground around the city. Then, in vicious streetfighting, they blasted their way through neighborhoods, eventually bottling up the Kurds and FSA in a small pocket around the border post.

What was once the market in Kobane (VICE)

Through October, the world watched, wide-eyed with terror. As brave and stubborn the resistance was, without reinforcements and resupply, ISIS was sooner or later going to snuff out what Kurdish and FSA units stood in their way. Kobane was going to go the way of the hundreds of other Kurdish villages ISIS had captured during their blitzkrieg into the region over the summer, an offensive that sent some 200,000 refugees fleeing to Turkey. Although the American-led coalition had been conducting air strikes in other areas of Syria, few sorties were launched around Kobane, despite the wealth of targets, courtesy of ISIS pouring in thousands of fighters into the battle.

Peshmerga fighters from Iraqi Kurdistan, as well as other Free Syrian Army units in Northern Syria were ready to roll and reinforce the town, but they needed to cross Turkish territory in order to reach their besieged comrades. President Erdogan of Turkey was reluctant to offer support, feeling it was a lost cause and claiming in multiple instances that Kobane was going to fall. Turkey’s long-standing problems with the Kurds also didn’t help.

He gave in, though, and reinforcements began arriving in Kobane at the end of October, slowly recapturing lost parts of the town. ISIS didn’t give in easily, though. The reinforcements didn’t matter. Fighters being vaporized and heavy weapons destroyed by air strikes didn’t matter. Kobane had become a battle of honor for ISIS. Defeat may be inevitable, but it was going to stand its ground for as long as it could, if for nothing else than to show that airstrikes didn’t rattle them.

A YPG fighter with his son. (Bulent Kilic/AFP/Getty Images)

By Jan. 30, though, ISIS had been forced out, and even had to admit the truth of the situation. It only took 133 days, 705 air strikes, and the timely arrival of reinforcements and supplies.