September 16, 2014 – January 26, 2015 · Kobani (Ayn al-Arab) Theater
September 16, 2014 – January 26, 2015
ISIS launched a massive assault on the Kurdish town of Kobani on the Turkish border in September 2014, deploying tanks and heavy weapons seized from the Iraqi Army and quickly surrounding the town on three sides. With the Turkish military watching passively from across the border — Ankara had little interest in saving Kurdish fighters — the battle became a globally televised test of whether ISIS could be stopped. US airstrikes, initially scattered, intensified dramatically as Kobani became symbolically critical; Kurdish reinforcements from Iraq were eventually permitted to cross Turkey. When YPG Kurdish fighters finally drove ISIS from Kobani on January 26, 2015, the battle had cost ISIS an estimated 1,000–2,000 fighters and established the YPG — later rebranded as the Syrian Democratic Forces — as the United States' most effective ground partner against ISIS.
Commanders