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DAMASCUS, June 27 (Xinhua) -- The Kurdish fighters have regained control of the entire city of Ayn al-Arab, or Kobane, in northern Syria, after driving out the militants of the Islamic State (IS) group, a monitor group reported on Saturday.
The clashes in Ayn al-Arab have stopped as the Kurdish fighters are combing the city in search of any IS militants, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
The IS militants infiltrated Ayn al-Arab, near the Turkish borders, on early Thursday, committing massacres against the civilians, killing 174 of them and engaging in intense battles with the Kurdish fighters of the People's Protection Units (YPG).
The airstrikes of the U.S.-led anti-terror coalition backed the YPG in repelling the IS attack, which was deemed as a retaliatory one after the YPG and allied Syrian rebel groups advanced in the IS strongholds in the northern province of Raqqa, the de facto capital of the IS.
Earlier in the day, the YPG detonated a building where the IS militants were stationing in southwestern Ayn al-Arab, as the U.S.-led strikes were taking out the last remaining IS holdouts in the city.
The Kurds have recently been fighting to secure their areas in northern Syria, as part of their long-dreamed of project of having an autonomy in predominantly-Kurdish areas in northern Syria.
