Musa, a 25-year-old Kurdish marksman, sits in the rubble of the Syrian town of Kobane, also known as Ain al-Arab, on Jan. 30, 2015.

Kurdish ground forces, helped by U.S. and allied air support, have retaken the Syrian town of Kobane from the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) militants, U.S. Lieutenant-General James Terry said on Saturday.

Supporting what Kurdish forces said earlier this week, Terry, commander of the Combined Joint Task Force that has been leading air strikes against ISIS, said in a statement: “Kurdish ground forces, supported by our air component, were successful in retaking the town of Kobane.”

The American military, which has backed the Kurds with a steady stream of air strikes, had been cautious in its earlier assessments, even after Kurdish militia claimed victory in the months-long battle.

The Syrian Kurdish forces have been backed by near daily U.S.-led airstrikes around the town, known as Ayn al-Arab in Arabic, and supported by Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga forces.

‘Big deal’

Kurdish fighters’ success in recapturing the key Syrian town of Kobane from the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) group was a “big deal,” U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Saturday.

Kerry, speaking during a trilateral meeting with his Mexican and Canadian counterparts in Boston, noted that ISIS has been “forced to acknowledge its own defeat.”

The U.S.-led coalition targeting ISIS meanwhile said it carried out more than 700 airstrikes since August 8 to help Kurdish fighters drive the militants from Kobane.

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