Kurds prepare to fight to the death as Islamic State advances on Kobani

Kurdish forces have called upon all Kurds in Syria to help stop militants from the Islamic State who are poised to take the Syrian town of Kobani, near the Turkish border.

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LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - Islamic State forces have advanced on the Kurdish border town with tanks, and have been pummeling it with artillery, even as U.S. airstrikes attempt to slow their advance.

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A statement from the YPG, the main Kurdish military force in Syria, said that the group vows "never ending" resistance against the Islamic State. If the terrorist group moves into the city then: "Every street and house will be a grave for them."

"Our call to all the young men and women of Kurdistan . is to come to be part of this resistance."

The head of the Kurdish forces at Kobani, Esmat al-Sheikh, said that the Islamic State is now less than half a mile away.

"We are in a small, besieged area. No reinforcements reached us and the borders are closed," he told Reuters. "My expectation is for general killing, massacres and destruction."

Remzi Savas, a 53-year-old who lives in Kobani said that children have come to fight to save the Kurdish town.

"My son is over there, he crossed through a minefield to get there. He is just 14. There are many children fighting for the YPG, we can't hold them back. They think they'll lose everything if Kobani falls."

The Islamic State-which has taken roughly a third of Iraq and Syria since mid-2014-had made recent gains in Syria because Syria's president, Bashar al-Assad, turned his attention to other rebel groups. On October 3, the Syrian army moved towards the city of Aleppo in the Syria's west, which threatens to cut rebel supply lines.

"They are going to encircle Aleppo," said Abu Abdo Salabman, a member of the Mujahideen Army, a rebel group that is part of the moderate opposition to Assad.

"They are bombing us non-stop," said Salabman. "They are marching on us and the regime air force is non-stop."

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