Kurdish ground forces, aided by extensive airstrike from the U.S., have regained the Syrian town of Kobani from ISIS control, U.S. Lieutenant-General James Terry said on Saturday.
Two suspected ISIS fighters admitted that the militant group has abandoned Kobani due to U.S.-led airstrikes in a video given to the ISIS-aligned Amak news agency, saying that aerial attacks from fighter jets led them to retreat, the Guardian reported.
Earlier this week, Kurdish fighters battling ISIS said that after 122 of fighting, the city was no longer in ISIS control, CNN reported.
Supporting the claim of the Kurdish forces, Lieutenant-General Terry said in a statement that "Kurdish ground forces, supported by our air component, were successful in retaking the town of Kobani."
The Kurdish fighters, known as the YPG or People's Protection Units, were backed by an extensive campaign of airstrikes by the U.S.-led international coalition against ISIS.
"Recently, we have withdrawn from Ayn Al-Islam bit by bit, because of the airstrikes and deaths of a number of our brothers," one of the two ISIS fighters said in the video, with most of his face covered.
He claimed that ISIS members had raided 360 villages in and around Kobani, adding that the reason for leaving the city is that "we no longer had places to hold there. We were inside Ayn Al-Islam and we occupied more than 70%, but the airstrikes did not leave any building standing, they destroyed everything."
"I swear by God, their planes did not leave the air, day and night; they did airstrikes all day and night. They targeted everything. They even attacked motorcycles; they have not left a building standing. But by God willing we will return and we will have our revenge multiplied."
The United States and allied nations have launched over 700 airstrikes in Kobani alone since Aug. 8, claiming to have destroyed over 280 fighting positions.
