QAMISHLI, Syria — Redur Xelil, spokesman for the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG), spoke to Al-Monitor about the intensified clashes between the al-Qaeda splinter group, the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) and the Kurds in northern Syria. For the first time, the YPG openly called on Kurds from outside of Syria to join the movement.

ISIS, formerly an al-Qaeda affiliate, has been assaulting the Kurdish inhabited city of Kobani in the province of Aleppo from three sides since March 15. This area is one of the three regions where the Kurds announced autonomous canton administrations close to the border with Turkey.

Kobani holds a symbolic role as the first town that was captured by Kurdish forces on July 19, 2012, as part of a campaign to control Kurdish areas. The creation of the YPG was also first announced in the city in 2012. “Kobani was the first city that was liberated from the regime in Rojava [the western part of Kurdistan in Syria],” said Xelil.

According to Xelil, there are two main rationales behind the attacks on Kobani. First, he said ISIS' agenda is to expand to other regions. Second, he said the regime is having a hard time with the Kurds, and may be engaged in a campaign to weaken them "and remove the new democratic experiment of the Kurds.”