NBC’s Engel: Fight Between ISIS and the Kurds at ‘Something of a Stalemate’

"ISIS still controls about half of the city. In that propaganda video, the hostage who they turned into a spokesman under duress, said that ISIS controls about 90 percent of the city and said there were no foreign reporters there. And at the time, he was at least right about the foreign reporters not being there, but ISIS is not controlling 90 percent of the city, more like 50 percent. But it is something of a stalemate. It’s very difficult for either side to advance. They have a lot of snipers, the area between them is sometimes very short -- in some cases we were 20 yards away from ISIS militants.

So sometimes you will be in a building, there will be a street and then in a building across the street, there will be hostile forces. It is now become a symbol of the battles in Syria. It has become a symbol for ISIS. ISIS is determined, it says, to take Kobani in part because the fighters there and the women fighters are putting up such a challenge. ISIS wants this to become a propaganda victory saying this was the toughest town in Syria, this is the place where women and men, secular fighters, pro-American fighters were taking a stand, and ISIS was still able to bring it down. But at this stage, if anything, I would say that the Kurdish defenders have the upper hand, but they still only have about half the city."