Kobani: The Kurdish City That Stopped ISIS
- Mehmet Özdemir
- 1 hour ago
- 5 min read
Introduction
Kobani (Kurdish: Kobanê; officially Ayn al-Arab) is a Kurdish city in northern Syria, on the border with Turkey. It became known around the world in 2014–15, when its people — led by the YPG and YPJ — held out against a massive assault by ISIS and, against all expectations, broke the siege. For Kurds, Kobani is a symbol of resistance and sacrifice, the place where the myth of ISIS invincibility was shattered, and a cornerstone of the Rojava experiment in Kurdish self-government.
This is the latest entry in our geographic series profiling the cities and towns of the region — where they are, who controls them, who lives in them, and why they matter to the Kurdish story.
Quick Facts
Common Name: Kobani (Kobanê)
Official Name: Ayn al-Arab
Country: Syria — Aleppo Governorate, on the Turkish border
Population: Around 45,000 before the war (2004 census); larger in the wider district
People: Kurdish-majority, with smaller Arab and other communities
Setting: On the Syria–Turkey border, near the Euphrates, on the Suruç plain
Status: A centre of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (Rojava)
Known For: The 2014–15 resistance to the ISIS siege
Contents
Location and Geography
Kobani sits in the far north of Syria, in the Aleppo Governorate, immediately on the border with Turkey — the Turkish town of Suruç (Pirisûs) lies just across the line. It stands on the Suruç plain, the agricultural heartland of the region, roughly 30 kilometres east of the Euphrates River and about 150 kilometres north-east of Aleppo city. The city grew up in the early twentieth century around a station on the Baghdad Railway, and its position on the frontier has shaped its fate ever since — both as a refuge and as a target.
People and Population
Kobani is a Kurdish-majority city. Before the Syrian war its population was recorded at close to 45,000, with the wider subdistrict considerably larger, and with smaller Arab and other communities alongside the Kurdish majority. During the 2014 siege the population swelled dramatically as people fled fighting elsewhere, and then collapsed as some 200,000 people fled across the border into Turkey. Since liberation many have returned and rebuilt, and Kobani remains a strongly Kurdish city at the heart of the Kurdish-speaking belt of northern Syria.
History
Kobani is a relatively young city, founded around 1915 near a railway station, with Kurds settling the area in the early twentieth century. For decades it was a modest border town within Syria. Its modern significance dates from the Syrian civil war: on 19 July 2012, as the Syrian state withdrew, Kobani became the place where the Rojava Revolution was first declared, and it came under the control of the Kurdish YPG. In 2014 it was made the administrative centre of its canton, part of the emerging Kurdish-led autonomous administration in northern Syria.
The 2014–15 Siege
From September 2014 to January 2015, Kobani was besieged by ISIS, which threw waves of fighters, car bombs and heavy weapons at the city. Most of the population fled, around 200,000 crossing into Turkey, and much of the city — by some accounts around 70 per cent — was destroyed. Yet the Kurdish YPG and the women’s units of the YPJ held on, street by street, and with the support of US-led coalition airstrikes they broke the siege and drove ISIS out in early 2015. The defence of Kobani became a global symbol: the moment the advance of ISIS was halted and its myth of invincibility shattered. The city’s two Martyrs’ Cemeteries, with their rows of graves, are a lasting testament to the cost of that victory.
Kobani Today
After 2015 Kobani was rebuilt and became a key centre of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (Rojava). In October 2019, as Turkey threatened to invade, Kurdish forces accepted the entry of Syrian government troops and Russian military police as a shield against attack. The fall of the Assad regime in late 2024 brought new uncertainty. Through 2025 and into 2026 Kobani came under renewed and severe pressure from Damascus-backed and Turkish-backed forces, with reports of the city being encircled and its water and power cut. In January 2026, Kurdistan Region President Masoud Barzani said that, as in 2014, he would send Peshmerga to defend Kobani if it were possible — a measure of how grave the threat to the city has again become.
Timeline of Key Events
c. 1915 — Kobani is founded near a station on the Baghdad Railway.
19 July 2012 — The Rojava Revolution is declared in Kobani; the YPG takes control.
2014 — Kobani becomes the administrative centre of its canton.
Sep 2014–Jan 2015 — ISIS besieges the city; ~200,000 flee and ~70% is destroyed.
Jan 2015 — YPG and YPJ, with coalition airstrikes, break the siege and expel ISIS.
Oct 2019 — Syrian and Russian forces enter to deter a Turkish invasion.
Dec 2024 — The fall of the Assad regime opens a new period of uncertainty.
2025–26 — Kobani faces renewed siege-like pressure from Damascus- and Turkish-backed forces.
Debates and Controversies
Kobani sits at the centre of several disputes. Turkey regards the YPG that defended the city as linked to the PKK and has repeatedly threatened and attacked Kurdish-held areas of northern Syria; Kurds see this as an attempt to crush their hard-won self-rule. Within Syria, the Kurdish-led administration expanded after 2017 into Arab-majority areas such as Raqqa and Deir ez-Zor, where some communities have been wary of Kurdish-led governance — a tension the administration has had to manage. And the official Arabic name, Ayn al-Arab, versus the Kurdish Kobani, reflects the long argument over the region’s identity. Written from a Kurdish perspective, this profile recognises those disputes while affirming Kobani as a Kurdish city defended by its own people.
Significance for the Kurds
For Kurds everywhere, Kobani is sacred ground. Its resistance in 2014–15 — sometimes called the “Stalingrad of the Kurds” — turned a small border town into a global symbol of Kurdish courage and of the role of women fighters in the YPJ. Alongside Sinjar, where Kurdish forces helped rescue Yazidis from genocide, Kobani came to stand for the Kurds as the people who stopped ISIS when others could not. Its defence gave the wider Rojava project international recognition, and its survival remains, to this day, a matter of Kurdish national pride and concern.
Related Places and Topics
Qamishli, the de facto capital of Rojava to the east.
Sinjar, another front in the Kurdish fight against ISIS. The YPG and YPJ, the Rojava Revolution, and the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria.
Frequently Asked Questions
Where is Kobani?
Kobani is in northern Syria, in the Aleppo Governorate, right on the border with Turkey, on the Suruç plain about 30 km east of the Euphrates. Its official Arabic name is Ayn al-Arab.
Why is Kobani famous?
Kobani is famous for the 2014–15 siege, when Kurdish YPG and YPJ fighters, backed by US-led coalition airstrikes, held out against ISIS and broke the siege — a turning point in the war that shattered the myth of ISIS invincibility.
Is Kobani a Kurdish city?
Yes. Kobani is a Kurdish-majority city and was the place where the Rojava Revolution was declared in 2012. It is a key centre of the Kurdish-led Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria.
What is happening in Kobani now?
After the fall of the Assad regime in late 2024, Kobani came under renewed pressure from Damascus-backed and Turkish-backed forces. In early 2026 the city faced severe threats, and Kurdish leaders warned of the danger to its people.
References and Further Reading
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