Kobani the Kurdish Stalingrad: Crucial Battle in War against the 'Islamo-Fascism' of Isis

As the siege of Kobani reaches its 30th day, the epic struggle between the Kurdish defenders and Islamic State (formerly known as Isis) jihadis is being viewed as a battle against religious totalitarianism and Islamo-fascism.

For a month the intense street-fighting between Islamic State (IS) and Kurdish forces defending the besieged Syrian city on the Turkish border has increasingly drawn comparisons with World War II's greatest battle between the Soviet Union and Germany's Nazi war-machine at Stalingrad, in 1942/3.

Indeed, Nick Cohen, The Observer commentator, said of the battle for Kobani: "It's fascism the Kurds are fighting" and called on Western governments and liberal opinion to back them in the fight against "radical Islam, [which] like fascism before it, wallows in the cult of death."

Meanwhile, new footage from Kobani has shown tanks flying IS flags rolling through the city while shots are fired at them by Kurdish fighters in a bitter street-by-street, house-to-house battle, reminiscent of the great World War II struggle in which the Red Army was pushed to the brink before an heroic fightback which would eventually prove the turning point of the global conflict.

Linked to the Marxist-inspired Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), an outlawed organisation blacklisted in the US and the EU who fought the Turkish army for 30 years causing 40,000 deaths, the "comrades" of the YPG (People's Protection Units) are desperately outnumbered and outgunned by Isis, which boasts an arsenal of US weapons looted from the Iraqi army in Mosul.

Gunshots can be heard throughout the video among other images of Kurdish fighter positions in the city and large explosions.

Several female Kurdish fighters are also shown defending the city, also known as Ayn al-Arab.

The terror group continue to attack the city from the east, south and west leaving only the Turkish border to the north as the Kurds' last possible supply route.

Forty-two IS fighters were reportedly killed in fighting around the city yesterday (12 October), according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

However, the Islamist group have ordered in extra reinforcements, bringing tanks and artillery to the front-lines.

As the terror group continue to make gains in the city, it has become more difficult for coalition air strikes to pinpoint IS positions among the residential environment.

"We have a problem, which is the war between houses," said Esmat Al-Sheikh, head of the Kobani defence council.

In Turkey, Ankara has agreed to allow the United States to use its military bases for operations against IS in Iraq and Syria.

US National Security Adviser Susan Rice announced that Turkish bases and territory would be used "to train moderate Syrian opposition forces".

"That's the new commitment, and one that we very much welcome," she added.

The month-long offensive by IS on the city has seen over 500 people killed while over 200,000 have fled the city and across the Turkish border.