SURUC: Kurdish fighters battled the Islamic State group in villages around Kobane on Tuesday, a day after expelling the jihadists from the strategic Syrian town on the Turkish border.

The news prompted celebrations among residents who fled across the frontier into Turkey, with thousands gathering at the border and hoping to return, more than four months after the fighting began.

The town’s recapture marked a key symbolic and strategic blow against IS, but officials warned massive reconstruction was needed and the fight would continue for the surrounding villages.

The Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) announced the “liberation” of Kobane on Monday, depriving IS of a strategic prize to add to its territory in Syria and Iraq.

“Our forces fulfilled the promise of victory,” the militia said, cautioning that fighting was not over yet. “The process to ultimately liberate Kobane canton (region) is ahead of us.

We pledge that we will successfully carry out this promise as well. “There was fighting in villages around the town on Tuesday, both to the southeast and the southwest, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitor.

Kobane activist Mustafa Ebdi said the US-led coalition fighting IS carried out fresh air strikes around the town on Monday evening and Tuesday morning.In Turkey, thousands of Kurds among the 200,000 who fled Kobane and the surrounding area, flocked to the border.

Most went to celebrate, but some tried to cross the frontier, which remains officially closed.

Turkish security forces used tear gas and water cannon to push back those who approached the barbed wire separating the two countries.

Only a handful of people were able to cross, including Idris Nassan, deputy foreign minister for the Kobane regional government.

“People are very glad. They are celebrating. Morale is very high,” he said from the town. He said the regional government was urging residents not to return yet.

“There is massive destruction. At least 50 percent of the city is destroyed,” he said.

“We are asking them to wait and not come immediately because we don’t have basic necessities for them. There is no food, no medicine. We don’t have electricity or water. “Nassan said the regional government would now appeal to the international community for help.

Published in Dawn, January 28th, 2015

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