After over three months of street to street fighting, ISIS suicide attacks and airstrikes, on the 31st of January 2015, it was declared that the city of Kobanî had been fully cleared of ISIS forces. ISIS also admitted defeat but vowed to return to attack the city again, and which it did 5 months later with horrific results.

We then ventured up a hill to the east of Kobanî. In the foregound is a trench for defense and the city of Kobanî in the background. On the left is Mistanour Hill and on the right is the Turkish border with the flagpole in the distance. ISIS had taken the hill during the siege and killed YPJ and YPG fighters that were defending it.


We then met with the local YPG commander on the hill top and they invited us to join them for some çay.