ARNETT: I saw AP went into Kobani.

ISMAIL: AP stays on location permanently. They are always there. There were some Italian journalists. We were staying at the same hotel in Sanliurfa, and I asked them “I haven’t seen you in the protected area. Where have you been so far?”

At first they said they had been to Duhok, Iraq. Later on, I gained their trust and they confessed they had been inside Kobani.

ARNETT: They went into Kobani? See, that’s crazy.

ISMAIL: They said that the Kurdish side is much stronger than is thought to be. That was their impression.

ARNETT: Is that right. Well, anyway I’m just interested in staying on the Turkish side, and getting pictures from there. Are the US still dropping bombs?

ISAMIL: Yeah. You can see it with your own eyes, without a zoom camera. Usually at 3:00 pm.

ARNETT: They bomb at 3?

ISMAIL: Not exactly at 3, but usually in the afternoon they bomb. I go there in the afternoon, generally, and I’ve experienced that bombing, from the coalition forces.

ARNETT: Is it loud?

ISMAIL: We can’t see the plane. First, we see smoke, rising into the sky, and then a moment later, you hear the sound. Boom.

Sometimes when I open this window, I can hear the war.

ARNETT: You can hear it from here, in Suruc?

ISMAIL: Yes.

Overlooking Kobani Dec 10 Photo © 2014 Andrew Arnett

ARNETT: I’m amazed that they’re still fighting there. I mean, it started in September.

ISMAIL: Last evening their was intense fighting. It was around 4:00 pm. I heard a huge exploding sound. I called my friends and asked “What’s the situation?”

They said a plane just dropped bombs. And later on, a cross fight went on and one of the close followers of these updates said a report indicated 25 Daesh fighters had been killed.

ARNETT: Twenty-five died last night?

ISMAIL: From last evening on.

ARNETT: From last evening until now, 25 Daesh fighters have been killed in Kobani. Were any Kurds killed?

ISMAIL: We don’t know. One of the Kurdish commanders has indicated that since the past two months, around 1400 Daesh fighters have been killed in the area.

And in return about 500 Kurdish fighters have been killed.

ARNETT: They’re very good fighters, the Kurds.

ISMAIL: A couple of weeks ago, 150 Peshmerga gathered here, to join the fight in Kobani, and the ones that were already in Kobani returned. They stayed here in Suruc for the night. In total, there were 310 Peshmerga forces in town.