Islamic State won't give up on Kobani despite pounding

Jim Michaels | USA TODAY

WASHINGTON — The Islamic State continues to send waves of attackers at the key city of Kobani on the Syrian-Turkish border despite hundreds of coalition airstrikes that have killed more than 1,000 militants and destroyed scores of weapons.

More than 80% of the coalition airstrikes in Syria in the past six weeks have been aimed at militant targets in or around the Syrian city, according to an analysis of U.S. military statistics.

Several months ago, the city was was in danger of falling to militants and handing them a significant symbolic victory over the large U.S.-led coalition assembled against them. Strategically, Kobani is not considered an important military outpost.

Today, the Pentagon says Kobani remains largely in the control of Kurdish ground forces, though the city is still contested.

It's a turnaround from October, when militants appeared on the verge of seizing control of the city from beleaguered Kurdish defenders.

In the past six weeks, coalition aircraft have launched more than 270 airstrikes in Kobani out of a total of 333 strikes in Syria, according to U.S. military statistics.

U.S. officials say they haven't changed their mind about the importance of Kobani, but militants are providing the coalition with targeting opportunities.

"As they present themselves … we're going to hit them," said Rear Adm. John Kirby, the Pentagon press secretary.

The Islamic State, which also goes by the acronym ISIL and ISIS, seems unwilling to give up despite the casualties its fighters are taking, analysts say.

Kobani has become a symbol of resistance to America, said Osman Bahadir Dincer, a security analyst at the International Strategic Research Organization, a think tank based in Ankara, Turkey. "This is a way to reach potential recruits."

The town's location on the border also makes it important for the Islamic State because abandoning it would give the Kurds a foothold in Syria and an opportunity to unite disparate Kurdish militias against the militants.

"The advantage ISIL has is Syrian Kurds are isolated from Kurds in southern Turkey and northern Iraq," said James Poss, a retired Air Force major general now at Mississippi State University.

Militants are not only getting pounded from the air. Turkey recently allowed Kurdish forces in Iraq to join the battle in Kobani, providing critical help and supplies for the Syrian Kurds who are holding out against the Islamic State onslaught.

The reinforcements have made it more difficult for Islamic State militants to avoid airstrikes. Islamic State militants have to attack in large formations with heavy weapons or they will be defeated by the growing strength of the city's defenders. And that makes the militants a bigger target for air strikes.

In a round of strikes last Sunday, coalition aircraft slammed nine targets, including two described as "large ISIL units," according to the task force overseeing the strikes.

The presence of the Iraqi Kurds has also given the coalition a better intelligence picture of what is going on in the city, Poss said. That helps ensure that the coalition doesn't run out of targets and avoids friendly casualties.

Some analysts say the unwillingness of the militants to give up on Kobani suggests the Islamic State has a deep reserve of fighters to draw on, said Jennifer Cafarella, an analyst at the Institute for the Study of War.

Still, coalition air and ground forces have forced the Islamic State "to pay a considerable price for its decision to continue offensive operations there," said Col. Edward Sholtis, a spokesman for U.S. Air Forces Central Command.