Kobani , Syria ( CNN ) Kobani feels haunted by those who are still alive in it , trapped in limbo . It is a place so inhumane that the noise of coalition warplanes above is of strange comfort to those there . The destruction so near complete , the fight is more now for victory alone , not for its spoils . One salient fact stands out : They have given up on hospitals inside the city . Yes , the lightly wounded are treated by the handful of doctors who remain , but since a huge car bomb near the official border crossing with Turkey obliterated their main hospital , they send the injured straight to the border . Another hospital would just be another possible target for ISIS . In the past the Kurds battling the militant Islamists for control of the border city have claimed as many as 10,000 civilians remain inside . During our two days there we saw little to justify that large a figure . There are civilians here , but they eke out a life in the rubble , seeking food and fuel as winter looms , and likely number in the low thousands . There are civilians here who refuse to flee or can not . Turkey has closed the western crossing point through which many refugees left -- indeed many stand there now , trying to get out , looking at the Turkish soldiers to help . Those inside , however , are besieged increasingly by ISIS from all fronts . Nothing can protect them from the indiscriminate , constant shelling . ISIS forces routinely use homemade mortars : gas canisters packed with shreds of scrap metal . They rain down on the Kurdish civilian areas , where fighters also mix . U.S. options in Syria shrivel as Assad , Islamist forces make gains . Yousuf , who is 12 , lists the friends who have left Kobani . He also shows us what they do to protect themselves when the blasts begin . There is no shelter , just a room in their house where their uncle told them to run . They show us the cushions they use to hide . Some line the walls , others they put on top of them . Were this a game , it would not have any rules . Ali is 60 years old and a week earlier lost one of his six daughters . She was 7 years old . He walks us to the spot where the mortar hit her . `` Three to four mortars fell near us . The first mortar we escaped from . The second mortar we escaped from . The third fell on us . '' He is interrupted by the thud of another mortar landing some streets away . `` My daughter was 7 years old ; 7 years old -- and she died . God bless help us . '' They could not flee ; the 150 sheep he tends are their livelihood , as is the family car they did not want to abandon . The animals stand helpless , too , near the spot where Ali 's daughter died . Ali and his family moved here when ISIS attacked their village , 15 kilometers from Kobani . Ali must live with these decisions . The day before , he sat at his daughter 's grave for a half-hour . He kisses her photograph . `` She was 7 years old . She was so beautiful . Small . People who saw her felt the need to lift her up and down in play . '' The graveyard on the city 's outskirts also is a somber scene . It , too , is makeshift . Rubble -- bits of cinder block -- are used as headstones . Next to the fresh graves lies a long trench -- ready for the next wave of dead . It , too , is the scene of children playing , clambering around the trench . The conflict 's brutality may be beyond their reach , but the fight for Kobani will decide what kind of life they could be left with if they survive . READ : Inside Kobani , scenes of devastation on every side . MORE : Explore panoramic view of aftermath of car bomb attack near border .
Civilians under pressure from ISIS eke out a living in the city of Aleppo . ISIS fires gas canisters packed with metal shards on Kurdish civilian areas . Civilians use cushions to protect themselves from ISIS attacks . Children play in a makeshift playground in the devastated city .