Updated Jan. 27, 2015 6:35 p.m. ET
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ISTANBUL—U.S.-backed Kurdish forces declared victory in the battle for the Syrian border city of Kobani, but said they still face a daunting challenge in pushing the extremist group Islamic State from nearly 400 surrounding villages.
Officials also cautioned that much of the city is still uninhabitable after four months of intense warfare, offering little relief for the hundreds of thousands of refugees who fled across the border into Turkey to escape the advancing Islamist militants.
A local Syrian Kurdish militia was aided by 150 Iraqi Kurdish fighters and hundreds of airstrikes by a U.S.-led international coalition in the seesaw fight that became a test of Western determination to stem the advance of Islamic State.
Kobani is now “100% cleared” of Islamic-State fighters, Idres Nassan, the deputy foreign minister of Kobani’s Kurdish regional administration, said from the city. He said the Kurdish forces are using momentum from the Kobani victory to continue pushing Islamic State militants out of the hundreds of surrounding villages.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/kurdish-forces-declare-complete-victory-in-kobani-1422362163