The world media have been transfixed for the past few weeks by the heroic struggle of Kurdish fighters in Kobane, who, in spite of predictions, have held off an attempt by the Islamic State to take their city.

The Kurds of Kobane are fighting to defend their right to self-determination, something that has been denied the Kurds across the region for nearly a century. Time and again, they have been betrayed by one or another colonial or regional power. The determination with which they have resisted IS is an inspirational chapter in a long history of struggle.

But there is a deep incongruity in the way this fight has been covered in the corporate and liberal media. It is as if the Kurds are the only ones waging a battle for survival in Syria.

In reality, the battle for Kobane is just one of many life and death struggles being fought from one end of Syria to the other.

In Aleppo, once the industrial centre of the country, rebels forces have for months been fighting for survival, besieged by the Assad regime on one side, and IS on the other.

Western journalists are thin on the ground in Aleppo, mostly on account of the barrel bombs dropped on the rebel-held areas of the city by the regime on a daily basis. But that doesn’t mean they don’t exist or have been defeated. Vice News is an unexpected source on the reality of life in Aleppo, and the dispatches posted on its website paint a picture of a resistance that is far from broken.

According to rebel commander Abu Ama, “If we take into consideration how the FSA has been holding on until now, it shows that the regime would have fallen if it wasn’t for the Islamic State.

“The West won’t support us because we have Islamic ideology. But we are moderate Muslims. I love Angelina Jolie”, he joked.

Another fighter told Vice News: “In any European country, if someone was killed in a protest, the whole government would be sacked. There isn’t a worse regime in the whole world than this criminal regime. It has destroyed the people and the country.”

Across Syria, resistance to the regime continues, bloodied but not beaten. And everywhere there are people crying out for their suffering and struggle to register with the world beyond their borders.

“This is another Kobane, and Assad is crucifying and killing it without any coverage by the international media”, says Adem, a university student (once) in eastern Ghouta, a rebel stronghold on the outskirts of Damascus, who spoke to Syrian Observer.

“We are dead no matter what. All of us here in this large area of the Damascus countryside are prisoners. We’re all just waiting for a shell, an air strike, a rocket to come and make corpses of us in a matter of seconds. Even those who survive these attacks will die, perhaps from hunger, or perhaps from the lack of medicine. No one will pay attention to us as long as our murderer is Bashar al-Assad, who has been granted four years of international endorsement to exterminate us with all means at his disposal.”

According to Syrian Observer, eastern Ghouta’s cities have faced a violent military campaign by the regime’s army since the beginning of August. The regime has launched a large number of air raids and committed more than 20 massacres, resulting in the deaths of nearly 500 people, most of whom were civilians. Populated areas have been targeted with thermobaric bombs, guided missiles, artillery, mortars and other weapons. 

The whole of Syria is a battleground. The Kurdish forces in the north have every right to fight to defend the areas that they now control as a result of the regime’s retreat in the face of a nationwide uprising. But it is well past time that those fighting on two fronts across the rest of the country, against both IS and the regime, are recognised and supported as well.