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The battles that are taking place in Kobani are the most violent

Nawaf Khalil, a spokesman for Syria’s powerful Kurdish Democratic Union Party, the Kurdish fighters withdrew or lost up to 20 villages in the Kobani region and evacuated civilians with them.

“The battles that are taking place in Kobani are the most violent,” Khalil said adding that ISIS fighters were using tanks in their offensive. Khalil called on Kurds around the world to come to Syria to defend Kobani.

The fighting forced nearly 3,000 people to try to flee to Turkey and gathered near the border Turkish district of Suruc, according to the private Dogan News Agency. A video released by the agency showed Syrian refugees walking to the border with some Kurds asking to be allowed to cross to stay with relatives on the Turkish side of the frontier.

Like many fronts of Syria’s civil war, momentum in the fight between the extremists and the Kurds has swung back and forth. Earlier this week, for example, Kurdish fighters captured 14 villages from ISIS in other parts of Syria.

Still, the retreat in Kobani marked a setback for the battle-hardened Kurdish force known as the People’s Protection Units. The militia, which also goes by the initials YPK, has been perhaps the most successful fighting force battling ISIS, which has routed Iraqi and Syrian government forces. Last month, the YPK crossed the border into Iraq and opened a safe passage for members of the ancient Yazidi minority who were attacked by ISIS fighters.

The fighting around Kobani is part of ISIS’s wider battle in Syria as the extremists look to seize control of the few areas in the northeast still outside of their hands.