A pair of Islamic State fighters attributed the militant group's recent withdrawal from Kobani to U.S.-led airstrikes, The Guardian reports. ISIS threatened to overrun the Syrian border-city as recently as October.

"The warplanes were bombarding us night and day. They bombarded everything, even motorcycles," one of the fighters said in Arabic, according to The Guardian. CNN reports that the pair spoke to Amak, an ISIS-aligned news agency in Syria.

At one point, ISIS had claimed more than 70 percent of the city, one of the fighters said, "but the airstrikes did not leave any building standing, they destroyed everything."

Turkish troops are preventing Syrian and Kurdish refugees from returning to the area until it is safe, The Guardian reports.

"They tell us Kobani does not exist any more," Adila Hassan, a 33-year-old mother and refugee told The Guardian. "We do not know how long we will be staying here. We will return once the town is rebuilt. That's not going to happen soon."

[Photo credit: AP Images]