they are battling for control of rabea on the syrian border. charles stratford has this report. >> reporter: peshawar soldiers fire at fighters from the islamic state of iraq and levant or i.s.i.l. in northern iraq. they are defending the town of rabea, the syrian border, a kilometre away. al jazeera is the first international news organization on this front line since the peshawar took control from i.s.i.l. last month. the fighting has been intense. defending the position is vital to kurdish forces. >> translation: rabea is strategically important because it's the main route for i.s.i.l. >> the peshawar dug in. they built high defensive mud banks, saying i.s.i.l. forces usually attack at night. many peshawar were killed. around 70,000 people fled when the fighting started. peshawar military vehicles are parked among the abandoned homes. i.s.i.l. forces are a kilometre in that direction. the peshawar retook the town of rabea. with that they said i.s.i.l. changed the strategy. i.s.i.l. used trucks laden with explosives to ram front-line position

it is a strategic town of rabea. with that i.s.i.l. is changing strategy. i.s.i.l. used trucks and explosives to ram positions and checkpoints. they'll now send fighters on foot that try to implement the camp. >> they have to come in on foot. the day we resume is when we deploy three times in 24 hours. we repel them. they left many rocket launches. >> the question now is whether the peshawar can hold the position in the coming months, when cloud cover makes air strikes more difficult. >> the air strikes are very important. the second thing is antitank weapons and night vision capability. we need engineers for clearing improvised explosive devices. villages dot the road. the peshawar say they could never have retaken the town without coalition air strikes and weapons. as winter draws closer, so the peshawar challenge increases to defend towns like this across iraq >>> polls are open in eastern ukraine. after months of fighting, residents in the people's rugg licks of donetsk and luhansk are asked to vote for their home state. the ukranian government, european union a