KOBANI, Syria — Entering Kobani, I didn't know what to expect. In the thick of night, it was impossible to see very much. Apart from the occasional barking of wild dogs, there wasn't much to hear either. In the morning, I was surprised to find that most of the buildings in the vicinity were still standing. The western side of the town, where I was, has apparently been spared much of the intense fighting between the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) and Islamic State (IS) forces.

Surprisingly, there are still a fair number of civilians left in the city. Walking through the streets of western Kobani, one sees children running around and playing as if nothing unusual is afoot. Many of the people who stayed have joined the YPG forces to help defend their town against IS.

As fearless and calm as the people might look, Kobani is still a very dangerous place. On Dec. 16, three civilians were killed by the type of IS-fired mortars that regularly fall in and around YPG-controlled areas. That morning, a father, his son and their neighbor became victims. The father, Ahmed Abud, was an Arab man married to a Kurdish woman. After IS overran his village, he had sought refuge in Kobani. He is survived in Kobani by his wife and a daughter.

"He was a very good man. We used to help each other in moments of need," said Abu Yasin, one of Abud's neighbors. "He wanted to go back to his village once it was liberated."