On Monday, Kurdish fighters declared that they had released the city on the border to Turkey from ISIS’ grip after 112 days of fighting.
The efforts of the Kurdish fighters — known as the YPG, or People’s Protection Units — on the ground were backed by an extensive campaign of airstrikes by the U.S.-led international coalition against ISIS.
And according to the interviews given to ISIS aligned Amak news agency in Syria, it was those airstrikes that won the battle for Kobani, referred to by the fighters as Ayn Al-Islam.
“Recently, we have withdrawn from Ayn Al-Islam bit by bit, because of the airstrikes and deaths of a number of our brothers,” said one of the two fighters, his face covered apart from his eyes.
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A more challenging situation is when airstrikes seek to target ISIS inside populated areas like Mosul in Iraq, Raqqa in Syria and other cities under ISIS control.
Here the effectiveness of airstrikes is limited because of the risk of casualties among civilians. When coalition airstrikes hit cities in Aleppo, in northern Syria, civilian deaths were reported last year.
CNN’s Brian Walker contributed to this report.
