Fierce fighting in Syrian border town as ISIS raises their flag. Yahoo/Reuters

The battleground of Kobani. Yahoo/Reuters.

In the fiercely contested city of Kobani Syria, ISIS raised its flag within the city limits. Yahoo/Reuters. The flag was visible from across the Turkish border. Kurdish fighters inside the city say that although ISIS raised the flag they are still not in control of the city. The back and forth battle between the Kurds and ISIS is desperate and the Kurds are receiving very little in the way of support. U.S. and Arab airstrikes have failed to stop the offensive. ISIS wants the city to consolidate their recent gains in Syria. Kurdish fighters vow to fight to the end.

NBC is reporting that civilians have been drafted into the fighting. According to a source inside Syria untrained civilians are being given rifles and old women are being given grenades. The wounded are being treated across the border in Turkey. Hundreds have died on each side of the battle.

My Comment:

When old women are given grenades and told to fight you know the situation is desperate. Nobody is questioning their bravery and everyone fighting for there homes in Kobani deserve respect. Still, the Syrian Kurds desperately need help from someone but the question is who is going to provide it? The Turks won't do anything even though it is in their backyard. America and the Arab states won't either since they don't have anyone on the ground for fire control. The obviously don't want to hit the wrong people and are mostly concerned with ISIS leadership targets. Assad has ceded the area to ISIS for the time being and is concentrating his forces against other areas. That leaves nobody to help these people.

As for ISIS, if they manage to take Kobani, it would be yet another major victory. The city has been vigorously defended and a victory in such a hard fought battle would be a major morale boost. Doing it while under fire from American and Arab airstrikes would make the victory even sweeter. And again, it would boost their reputation as fierce warriors and aura of invincibility. Should the Kurds survive, it would be a major black eye for ISIS but unless they get help I don't see it happening. They very may well fight to the death but these days that's not enough...