Aussie jihadists killed as Kobane falls

Kurdish militia have driven the Islamic State group from the Syrian town of Kobane and raised their flags.

Success ... Members of People's Democratic Party (HDP) pose for a group picture at a roundabout inside Kobane after Kurdish fighters drove the Islamic State group from the Syrian border town. Picture: AFP Source: AFP

KURDISH flags are now flying over Kobane after Kurdish fighters finally drove out ISIS jihadists from the Syrian border town in a major strategic victory.

Observers say ISIS lost nearly 1200 fighters in the battle, of a total of 1800 killed, despite outgunning the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) with sophisticated weaponry captured from Iraqi and Syrian military bases.

The combat also sparked a mass exodus of local residents, with some 200,000 fleeing across the border into Turkey.

The US official said that many foreign fighters — including Australians, Belgians, Canadians and Chechens — were among the dead jihadists, but declined to give exact figures other than to say "it was hugely, hugely significant."

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Hoisting the flag ... Kurdish fighters in Kobane are seen raising the Kurdish flag. Picture: Russia Today Source: Supplied

Despite the apparent victory, smoke filled the air above Kobane and Turkish security forces continued to block the Syrian-Turkish border.

Clashes broke out when a number of people attempted to enter the city following news of the victory. The Turkish border forces fired tear gas and used water cannons to dispel the crowd. The tension reportedly decreased following a call from the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) for the crowd to retreat from the border.

Kurdish forces recaptured the town on the Turkish frontier from the Islamic State group on Monday in a symbolic blow for the jihadists who have seized swathes of territory in their brutal onslaught across Syria and Iraq.

Fight goes on ... Despite the apparent victory, smoke filled the air above Kobane and Turkish security forces continued to block the Syrian-Turkish border. Picture: Russia Today Source: Supplied

After more than four months of fighting, the streets — now patrolled by Kurdish militiamen with barely a civilian in sight — were a mass of rubble and gutted buildings, the journalists said.

Kurdish fighters armed with Kalashnikov assault rifles greeted the journalists with a hail of celebratory gunshots into the air and made the "V" for victory sign.

In one street, a mortar shell lay on the pockmarked tarmac. In another, a bright yellow car was left abandoned in the rubble, riddled with bullet holes, as a couple of men walked by to inspect the damage.

On Tuesday, Kurdish forces battled IS militants in villages around Kobane, warning that the fight against the jihadists was far from over.

Wrecked ... A Kurdish fighter stands amid rubble in Kobane. Picture: AFP Source: AFP

The recapture of Kobane appeared however to be a major step in the campaign against the IS militants who had seemed poised to seize the town after they began their advance in September.

But analysts said air strikes by the US-led coalition had been key to the YPG's success, taking out some of the jihadists' heavier weaponry and hitting their supply routes.

A minister in the regional Kobane government said Tuesday that at least half of the town had been destroyed.

The YPG had announced the "liberation" of Kobane on Monday, depriving the IS group of a prize to add to its territory in Syria and Iraq.

"Our forces fulfilled the promise of victory," the militia said, but cautioned that fighting was not over yet.

The United States had said on Tuesday that Kurdish fighters were in control of about 90 per cent of the town.

"ISIL is now, whether on order or whether they are breaking ranks, beginning to withdraw from the town," a senior State Department official told reporters.

But he warned that the militants, also known as ISIL, were "adaptive and resilient" and no-one was declaring "mission accomplished" yet.

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