662 killed in fighting over Syrian Kurdish city

Beirut, Oct 16 (IANS/EFE) At least 662 people have died during the month-long offensive by the Islamic State (IS) terrorist group on the Syrian Kurdish enclave of Kobane bordering Turkey, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said Thursday.

At least 20 of the victims were civilians, including 17 who were executed by the Islamists -- four were beheaded -- and the rest were killed in shelling on Kobane and surrounding villages, SOHR reported.

On the Kurdish side there were 268 fatalities, most of them members of the Protection Units of the Kurdish people, who died in combat or in the bombings.

On the side of the jihadis, 374 militants of the IS were killed in bombardments by aircraft of the US-led international coalition and in clashes with the Kurdish forces. The figure includes four militants who blew themselves up in suicide attacks.

The SOHR did not rule out that the death toll could be higher due to difficulties in keeping track of casualties in inaccessible areas of Kobani.

The jihadis' offensive on Kobane, one of the three main Kurdish enclaves in Syria, Thursday entered its second month amid a setback for the radicals as a result of increasing bombings by the international coalition.

The US special envoy for the coalition, John Allen, said Wednesday American attacks around Kobane had a "humanitarian purpose" and not a "strategic one" to save the town from the jihadis' advance.

--IANS/EFE

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