Inside Kobani, Scenes of Devastation on Every Side

When violence swallows a city as wholly as it has Kobani, as in so many of Syria's mottled cities, the fight becomes about who wins, rather than what is left for the victor.

Its streets have been so ground down to the bone, that the prize - so small but so intensely fought over - is now unrecognizable.

Every time you open your eyes in Kobani, you see the damage.

There are people still there, but it is hard to gauge how many. Food is scarce, as is fuel for heat. And day and night, indiscriminate, homemade mortars rain down on Kurdish homes - ISIS borrowing a technique, it seems, from the Syrian regime, and using domestic gas canisters and junk metal to kill or maim civilians.

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INTERACTIVE: Explore the devastation of this Syrian city