Key Facts
- Siege start date
- 13 September 2014
- City recaptured
- 27 January 2015
- Kurdish refugees displaced
- ~400,000 by January 2015
- Villages captured by IS
- 350 Kurdish villages and towns
- IS withdrawal distance
- 25 km from city by 2 February 2015
- June 2015 attack civilians killed
- at least 233
Strategic Narrative Overview
Kurdish YPG forces, supported by FSA factions under the Euphrates Volcano joint operations room and Peshmerga from Iraqi Kurdistan, resisted IS advances in and around the city. A US-led coalition began conducting airstrikes in support. By late October 2014 IS had penetrated parts of the city, but the combination of Kurdish ground resistance and sustained coalition air power gradually reversed IS gains, forcing a steady retreat through late 2014 and into January 2015.
01 / The Origins
In September 2014, the Islamic State launched an offensive against the Kobanî Canton in northern Syria, part of the de facto autonomous Kurdish region of Rojava. IS sought to expand its territorial control in northern Syria, capitalising on the broader Syrian Civil War. Within weeks, IS captured approximately 350 Kurdish villages and towns around the city, forcing around 300,000 Kurdish civilians to flee into neighbouring Turkey.
03 / The Outcome
On 26–27 January 2015, YPG-led forces fully recaptured the city of Kobanî. Rapid advances followed in rural areas, with IS driven from nearly all canton villages by late April 2015. A renewed IS assault in late June 2015 killed at least 233 civilians but was repelled. The battle was widely described as the 'Kurdish Stalingrad' and a strategic turning point in the broader campaign against Islamic State.
Belligerents & Mobilization Analysis
Side A
1 belligerent
Side B
4 belligerents
Kinetic Engagement Axis
Scroll horizontally to view full axis. Events plotted relatively.