MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
Eleven years ago, a battle for the Kurdish city of Kobani in northern Syria marked a turning point in the war against ISIS. Kurdish fighters were encircled. They managed to keep Islamic State forces at bay for weeks. They were eventually joined by U.S. forces launching airstrikes. Well, this week, Kobani is surrounded by Syrian government forces, and Kurds say they feel abandoned by the United States. NPR's Jane Arraf tells us more.
JANE ARRAF, BYLINE: It's freezing in northern Syria, and for more than a week, Kobani has been cut off from water and electricity. It's running out of fuel. Kobani, known as Ayn al-Arab in Arabic, is a majority Kurdish city. It's been part of an autonomous Kurdish-led region of Syria that broke away from the former Syrian regime. Now Syrian government forces have surrounded the city in an attempt to force the Kurds to give up territory and integrate into the new Syria.
The government of Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, a one-time al-Qaida commander, launched a full-on assault on Kurdish-held territory as U.S. envoy Tom Barrack said the United States no longer needed Kurdish forces to help fight ISIS. He said Syrian government forces could do the job instead. It's an abrupt end to a close military relationship between Syrian Kurds and the U.S. that started with Kobani, says Thomas McGee, a research fellow focusing on Syria at the European University Institute in Italy.
THOMAS MCGEE: Kobani and the immediate danger of encirclement by ISIS was, I guess we could say, the trigger to American direct intervention militarily in the Syrian conflict. And it was the stepping stone to building up this effective daily collaboration.
ARRAF: Kobani, which now has up to 400,000 residents, is close to the Syrian-Turkish border. Syrian government forces include Turkish-backed fighters who have fought their own battles with the Kurds. On Sunday, a U.N.-led aid convoy was allowed into Kobani for the first time, bringing food and some fuel. But the lack of electricity and freezing temperatures are putting lives at risk, according to aid officials. This is Rasha Muhrez, Syria director for Save the Children.
RASHA MUHREZ: We are very concerned and alarmed about what's happening in there. It's a cutoff electricity. It's no supplies. It's, again, the fact that the harsh weather conditions, the already, like, fragile infrastructure in there.
ARRAF: Syrian Kurdish officials say what is happening in Kobani is the clearest sign of betrayal by the United States of a once-close partnership.
Jane Arraf, NPR News, Amman.
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