ISIL loses a lot of its foreign fighters in loss to Kurds at Kobani

AFP:
Large numbers of foreign fighters are among the jihadists killed in the battle for the Syrian town of Kobane, a senior US official said Tuesday, saying the concerted campaign was halting the militants' march.

The United States says Kurdish fighters are now in control of about 90 percent of the town on the Syrian-Turkish border.The Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) announced the "liberation" of Kobane on Monday, depriving the Islamic State group (IS) of a strategic prize to add to its territory in Syria and Iraq.

"ISIL is now, whether on order or whether they are breaking ranks, is beginning to withdraw from the town," a senior State Department official told reporters.

But he warned that the militants, also known as ISIL, were "adaptive and resilient" and no-one was declaring "mission accomplished" yet.
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How long will it take for potential recruits to figure out they are expendable?  While some may see this fight as their ticket to paradise at some point they will run out of the suicidal volunteers.  The Kurds have shown themselves to to be effective fighters when they can get adequate support from air operations and armaments.  They may be a scary thought for all who have suppressed their ambitions in the past.

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