YPG/YPJ fighters who have gained the upper hand in continuing clashes on three fronts in Kobanê are inflicting serious blows on the ISIS gangs. YPJ fighter Bişeng said they had prepared their positions for winter conditions, saying: “We can sleep under a rock if necessary, but for civilians it is different,” stressing the need for an aid corridor.

After a month of fighting in Kobanê the YPG/YPJ forces are continuing to inflict blows on the ISIS gangs on all three fronts. YPJ fighter Bişeng said their only concern was the civilians, highlighting the urgent need for an aid corridor to be opened.

The course of the war has been different on the three fronts

On the eastern front in the battle for the canton of Kobanê in Rojava, the attacks by the ISIS gangs have reached the neighbourhoods of the town, while on the southern front clashes are continuing outside the town near the village of Memîdê and on the western front also outside the city. Since snipers play a determining role in urban warfare, the course of the battle has varied from front to front.  On the eastern front snipers have played a key role, but in the last three days the YPG/YPJ forces have gained the upper hand on all fronts. The gangs are bombarding the town with mortars and trying to hit the border gate in an effort to regain lost prestige. Clashes are continuing in villages and neighbourhoods on the margins of the town while on the western front outside the town fighting is going on from emplacements. On the western front the YPG/YPJ fighters are launching operations on many villages supported by militia from Kobanê.

Around the village of Tel Shair in the west the YPG/YPJ fighters are providing security for civilians and meeting their needs. The fighters have put up tents as winter approaches. YPJ fighter Bişeng says: "we are preparing our houses for winter," adding: "We can sleep in a tree trunk or under a rock if necessary, but for civilians it is different. Most of them are children, women or elderly. We are trying to take more of the town so that they can move back,” stressing the need for an aid corridor.

‘I promised my daughter and my niece’

53-year-old Hecî Faruk has been in the YPG/YPJ for 18 months. He is at the front with his daughter. He says: "My daughter and I have promised each other we will fight to the last drop of our blood for this country. I had an orphaned niece in the YPJ who fell in a clash in the village of Toreman. I also promised her I would not give up the resistance.”

When you speak to the people of Tel Shair they all have a different story to tell. For a month now many of them have been living in the minefield on the border. An elderly mother with barefooted children bemoans the fact they have not been able to wash for days, adding that sick elderly people were lying in pickup trucks. She said: “We Kurds have nobody. This old man has been ill for days. When we asked why they didn’t cross to the North, she replied: “We will eat a handful of Kobanê's soil every day, but we will not eat the kebabs of Turkey.”