US officials initally said that they were not concerned if Kobanî fell to ISIS and that their goals in Syria were not to save cities and towns, but to go after ISIS senior leadership, oil refineries and other infrastructure. However, with Kobanî's location on the Turkish border and the subsequent heavy media coverage of the siege on the city, Kobanî became too symbolically important to simply let it fall.

A large bomb crater from a Coalition air strike.


The US then stepped up efforts to save Kobanî and on the 19th October 2014, three US Air force C-130's airdropped 24 tons of small arms and ammunition and 10 tons of medical supplies into Kobanî. The US also increased the tempo and the intensity of their airstrikes. Previously the targeting of airstrikes was based largely on drone footage and satellite imagery. The US instead now started to work directly with the Kurdish forces on the ground, using their on the ground intelligence to pinpoint attacks with coordinates of Islamic State positions directly relayed by YPG forces in Kobanî.

A wild red poppy growing on the edge of a bomb crater.


A memorial sign showing the nom de guerre (in red) and name (in black) of a Kurdish fighter killed at this location during the battle.


On October 31st 2014, ~150 Peshmerga from Iraqi Kurdistan in 20 vehicles and carrying heavy weaponry crossed the border from Turkey to support the defense of the city.

The town residents were slowly trying to clean up the rubble and destroyed buildings.