Kurdish Peshmerga fighters have recaptured over a third of the villages around Syria’s flashpoint border town of Kobani from the ISIL Takfiri terrorists.

"The (Kurdish) People's Protection Units (YPG) have recaptured 128 villages out of some 350 in the past two weeks," said Rami Abdel Rahman, the director of the so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, on Sunday.

"The ISIL withdrew from villages east and south of Kobani mostly without resistance, but fought hard to try to keep control of villages to the west," he stated, adding, "That's because it wants to try to protect areas under its control in Aleppo province. But the Kurds are steadily advancing."

Kurdish fighters seized the town on the border with Turkey on January 26 and since then battles to recapture nearby villages have continued.

Syria has been grappling with a deadly crisis since March 2011. The violence fuelled by Takfiri groups has so far claimed the lives of over 200,000 people, according to reports. New figures show that over 76,000 people, including thousands of children, lost their lives in Syria last year.

Over 7.2 million Syrians have also become internally displaced due to the ongoing crisis, according to the United Nations.

The Takfiri terrorist groups, with members from several Western countries, control swathes of land in Syria and Iraq, and have been carrying out horrific acts of violence such as public decapitations and crucifixions against all communities such as Shias, Sunnis, Kurds, and Christians.

FNR/SS