Returning Syrian Kurds Find Recaptured Kobani in Ruins

Late last year, after months of assault by ISIS militants, many had given up the Syrian Kurdish city of Kobani as lost. The fight continued through the winter, until monitors and spokesmen for the the Kurdish People's Protection Unit announced earlier this week that ISIS forces had been driven from Kobani, and that Kurds now controlled the city once again. The defeat is one of several recent losses ISIS has suffered across Syria and Iraq, as the group's rapid and violent territorial grabs have been stalled and pushed back by local armies and international forces. On January 27, the U.S. Central Command confirmed that the Kurds now control more than 90 percent of Kobani, though fighting continues on the outskirts. Wednesday, reporters and photographers ventured back into the recaptured city with YPG soldiers, documenting the wreckage left after months of ground battles and airstrikes.

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