Fresh off victory over IS in Kobani, Kurds seek more success

FILE - In this November 4, 2014, file photo, Fighters shoot a machine gun toward the position of the Islamic State group on the outskirts of Kobani, seen from the Kara Ali village on the Turkey-Syria border. Kurdish fighters in Syria have ambitions to become the chief force fighting Islamic State group extremists in the country - building on their victory in Kobani to ally with moderate rebels and push the jihadis ever further. They tout the alliance as a gamechanger in the Syria war as well: the emergence of the effective moderate rebel force that the West has been looking to ally with all along.(AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda, File) FILE - In this November 4, 2014, file photo, Fighters shoot a machine gun toward the position of the Islamic State group on the outskirts of Kobani, seen from the Kara Ali village on the Turkey-Syria border. Kurdish fighters in Syria have ambitions to become the chief force fighting Islamic State group extremists in the country - building on their victory in Kobani to ally with moderate rebels and push the jihadis ever further. They tout the alliance as a gamechanger in the Syria war as well: the emergence of the effective moderate rebel force that the West has been looking to ally with all along.(AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda, File)

By Associated Press February 11, 2015 6 min read

BEIRUT (AP) – For Kurdish fighters, last month’s victory over Islamic State militants in the town of Kobani in northern Syria was only the beginning.

Their ambition is to build on an alliance with moderate rebels in Syria and become the chief force fighting the extremists in the country.

Its commanders say such an alliance could be just the partner that the West has been seeking all along in the battle against the Islamic State group, also known as ISIS or ISIL, which began its rise in 2013 and now holds a third of both Syria and neighboring Iraq.

The Kurds quickly emerged as a potent foe for the Islamic extremists. In August 2014, fighters of the YPG, the main Kurdish force, battled Islamic State militants to carve out an escape route for tens of thousands of members of Iraq’s Yazidi minority who were trapped on a mountaintop.

The fight for Kobani, which is on the border between Syria and Turkey, began after rapid Islamic State advances in mid-September. It further thrust Syria’s Kurds to the forefront of the anti-Islamic State groups.