Islamic State Forces shells besieged Kurdish town in Syria

 Written by : Mohamed Abdel Fattah

Oct 05, 2014

Islamic State fighters are within a kilometre of Kobane and US air attacks will not halt them, a Kurdish leader has said, as the group continued to bomb the Syrian-Kurdish town.

Islamic State forces captured a strategic hill overlooking the Syrian stronghold of Kobani on the border with Turkey after a three-week siege of the town, according to NTV television and local Kurds.

U.S.-led coalition warplanes had struck at Islamic State targets overnight to halt the insurgents' advance and Saturday's barrages were less intense than the previous day.

"Clashes continue now, they are shelling on all three fronts. They tried to invade Kobani last night but they were repelled," senior Kurdish official Asya Abdullah told Reuters from the town on Saturday.

Fighting for Kobane has raged for weeks. Kurdish fighters have managed to hold the town as dozens of surrounding villages fell to ISIL.

IS fighters launched a major offensive against Kobani on Sept. 16, sparking an exodus of more than 160,000 mainly Kurdish refugees into Turkey.

Some 90 percent of residents of Kobani and nearby villages have fled for fear of an imminent assault by ISIS, Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Thursday.

Syria warned Turkey on Friday against any military intervention on its territories, saying it would consider it an act of “aggression,” a day after the Turkish military was given authorization to conduct cross-border incursions against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) operating in the Arab country.

The warning came after Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu vowed late Thursday that Ankara would do whatever it could to prevent the predominantly Kurdish town of Kobani, near its border with Syria, falling to ISIS militants.

The White House welcomed the Turkish parliament's vote Thursday authorizing Turkish military activity against Islamic State in both Syria and Iraq.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest also praised contributions by Australia, Denmark and the Netherlands to contribute fighter aircraft.

Meanwhile unconfirmed reports say at least 35 militants were killed in US-led air strikes over northern Syria.

On Friday US Vice-President Joe Biden criticised Turkey and US allies in the Arab world for supporting Sunni militant groups such as Islamic State, prompting a sharp response from Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, and his government continues fighting a civil war against rebel groups ranging from the Western-backed Free Syrian Army to Islamist militants including IS.More than 190,000 people have been killed in more than three years of conflict.

Sources

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2014/10/isil-syria-kurdish-town-kobane-2014105113130688232.html

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-10-04/kurdish-fighters-hold-out-against-islamic-state-in-syria.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/10/04/us-airstrikes-kobani_n_5931110.html

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