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Protests around the world against Islamic State's siege of Kobani

Protesters chant slogans as riot police guard the main entrance of the European Parliament during a demonstration calling for support for the Syrian Kurdish town of Ain al-Arab, known as Kobani by the Kurds and currently besieged by the Islamic State, in Brussels on October 7, 2014. EMMANUEL DUNAND/AFP/Getty Images

Protesters and policemen face each other during demonstration against the Islamic State militant group on Oct. 8, 2014 in Hamburg, northern Germany. MARKUS SCHOLZ/AFP/Getty Images Kurdish protesters gather and block Parliament Square during a demonstration against Islamic State militant group on Oct. 8, 2014 in London, England. Dan Kitwood/Getty Images

Riots in Turkey over failure to aid besieged Syrian Kurds kill 19

Reuters — At least 19 people were reported killed in riots acrossTurkey, the deadliest street unrest in years, after the Kurdish minority rose up in fury at the government's refusal to protect a besieged Syrian town from Islamic State.

Street battles raged between Kurdish protesters and police across Turkey's mainly Kurdish southeast, as the fallout from war inSyria and Iraq threatened to unravel the NATO member's own delicate peace process. There were also clashes in the commercial hub Istanbul and capital Ankara.

Meanwhile, keep an eye on Anbar

This is from the Institute for the Study of War in Washington, DC:

The death toll in Kobani

Key details about the YPG militia battling IS

From Agence France-Presse:

The Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) defending the Syrian border town of Kobani from Islamic State group militants is the de facto army of Syria's Kurdish region.

Here are some details about the force:

What is the YPG?

YPG (Yekineyen Parastina Gel in Kurdish, or People's Protection Units in English) is a militia operating in majority-Kurdish areas in the north and northeast of Syria. The group is the long-standing armed branch of Syria's powerful Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD).

Wladimir van Wilgenburg, an analyst at the US-based Jamestown Foundation, says the YPG was reportedly first established in 2004 after Kurdish demonstrations against the Syrian government. But it was not officially announced until July 2012, more than a year into Syria's civil war, when its logo was made public.

The YPG patrols the borders of that region, mans checkpoints and has played a key role fighting Islamic State jihadists, including in defence of Kobani, Syria's third-largest Kurdish town.

Who backs the YPG?

Experts and regional governments, including Turkey, say the PYD and YPG are tied to the Kurdistan Worker's Party (PKK), which fought an armed struggle against Ankara for Kurdish self-determination.

What are YPG's relations with Syria's rebels, regime?

The withdrawal of Syrian forces from Kurdish regions led to accusations of collaboration between the PYD/YPG and the regime.

As a result, Kurdish forces have had tense relations with the Syrian opposition, and have angered rebels by refusing to let them fight the regime from Kurdish areas.

But experts say the relationship is less an alliance with the regime than a strategic understanding that freed government troops to battle on other fronts while the Kurds focus on autonomy. Kurdish fighters have fought against the regime alongside rebels in limited areas. In general, however, opposition fighters have eyed them with suspicion, accusing them of placing their bid for autonomy above toppling the government.

How strong is the YPG?

The International Crisis Group reported earlier this year that the YPG pays salaries of around $150 (118 euros) a month to between 25,000 and 30,000 fighters, although experts acknowledge there are no official statistics on the size of the force. Both men and women fight in the militia.

Although the force consists of trained members, there are reports of entire families fighting side by side in Kobani to defend it. For funds, experts say the group relies on taxes collected in Kurdish areas and the support of the PKK, which has a network of donors in Europe, Turkey and elsewhere in the Kurdish diaspora.

A look at an airstrike near Kobani

The Associated Press captured footage of an airstrike near Kobani:

What happens in Kobani could be a turning point in the war

This piece in Foreign Policy by Elias Groll is an important read to understand what makes the battle for Kobani so crucial:

Kobani is now the sole remaining Kurdish-controlled town along a huge stretch of the Syrian border. To understand how isolated it is from the rest of the country, consider the map below. Syrian Kurds have in recent weeks been battling with Islamic State militants elsewhere in Syria, but it is in Kobani where that fighting has entered a key phase, as the militant group attempts to consolidate its rule in the north. 

Read on here.

Islamic State's 'biggest retreat' since entering Kobani

Reuters reports:

US-led airstrikes on Wednesday pushed Islamic State fighters back to the edges of the Syrian Kurdish border town of Kobani, which they had appeared set to seize after a three-week assault, local officials said.

The town has drawn international attention since the Islamists' advance drove 180,000 of the area's mostly Kurdish inhabitants to flee into adjoining Turkey.

Ankara has infuriated its own restive Kurdish minority and its NATO partners in Washington by refusing to intervene. Islamic State fighters hoisted their black flag on the eastern edge of the town on Monday but, since then, airstrikes have been redoubled by a US-led coalition that includes Arab Gulf states seeking to reverse the militants' dramatic advance across northern Syria and Iraq.

Intense gunfire and loud explosions could be heard on Wednesday morning from across the Turkish border, and huge plumes of grey smoke and dust rose above the town, where the United Nations says only a few hundred inhabitants remain. "They are now outside the entrances of the city of Kobani.

The shelling and bombardment was very effective and as a result of it, IS have been pushed from many positions," Idris Nassan, deputy foreign minister of the Kurdish-run Kobani district, told Reuters by phone.

"This is their biggest retreat since their entry into the city and we can consider this as the beginning of the countdown of their retreat from the area."

Islamic State had been advancing on the strategically important town from three sides and pounding it with artillery despite dogged resistance from heavily outgunned Kurdish forces.

Defense experts said it was unlikely that the advance could be halted by air power alone — a fact that left not only Washington but also the Syrian Kurds' ethnic kin across the border in Turkey demanding to know why Turkish tanks lined up within sight of Kobani had not rolled across the frontier.

The Turkish parliament voted last week to authorise cross-border intervention but President Tayyip Erdogan and his government have so far held back.

Many Turks prefer to risk alienating the Kurds rather than be sucked into a ground war in Syria, a prospect Erdogan says he would consider only as part of an international push that also sought to remove Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.