New US air strikes hit Islamic jihadists outside Syria Kurdish town

New US air strikes hit Islamic jihadists outside Syria Kurdish town.
MURSITPINAR/BEIRUT,— A US-led coalition has carried out new air strikes against jihadists from the Islamic State group outside a key Syrian Kurdish border town, activists and a monitor said Saturday.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based group, said the coalition hit at least four areas late Friday on the southern and southeastern fronts outside Kobani in Syrian Kurdistan, also known as Ain al-Arab.

The group said the strikes had destroyed some military materiel belonging to IS, which fired dozens of shells into the town on Friday after advancing to its outskirts.

An activist from the town, Mustafa Ebdi, also reported the strikes.
They hit last night mostly on the eastern front," he said.

On Saturday, fierce clashes were continuing as IS militants battled to seize Kobani, said activists and a monitoring group that also reported the latest US-led air strikes launched on Friday night.

An AFP team on the Turkish side of the border near Kobani said that the fighting was visible on Saturday morning, with mortar shells pounding into the town and smoke rising above it.

The raids followed a day of relentless bombardment of Kobani by IS forces who have surrounded the town, Syria's third largest Kurdish town.
Both Ebdi and the Observatory said IS forces had fired at least 80 shells into Kobani on Friday,www.Ekurd.net as they attempted to force their way into the strategic border town.

Ebdi said Kurdish forces working with Arab rebels were able to repel an evening attack by IS jihadists, but fighting was ongoing.

The Observatory too reported heavy fighting on Saturday morning, particularly on the southwestern front, adding that IS was continuing to shell the town.

There was no immediate death toll from the fighting overnight.
But Ebdi said there was some optimism among the fighters in the town on Saturday.
Daesh fighters were saying they would be praying Eid prayers in Kobani," he said, using the Arabic acronym for IS and referring to the Muslim Eid al-Adha festival being marked on Saturday.

"But so far they have failed to enter the town."

IS began its advance towards Kobani on September 16, hoping to seize the strategic town and cement its grip over a long stretch of the Syrian-Turkish border.

The fighting has prompted a mass exodus of residents from Kobani and the surrounding countryside, with the Observatory estimating around 300,000 people have been displaced.

Many of those, at least 186,000 according to the Turkish government, have fled over the border into Turkey.

Turkey threatens IS

Washington is leading a coalition of nations against the IS group, which has declared an Islamic "caliphate" in parts of Syria and Iraq.

On Thursday, Turkey's parliament voted to allow the deployment of Turkish forces in Syria and Iraq to fight the Islamic State, and the country's prime minister has pledged to "do whatever we can" to prevent Kobane falling to IS militants.

On Saturday, Ankara also warned it would not hesitate to strike IS jihadists if they attacked Turkish troops stationed at an enclave holding the tomb of Suleyman Shah.

The small patch of land is considered Turkish territory and several dozen Turkish troops are stationed there.

"If one so much as touches a hair on the their heads, Turkey with its army will do all that is necessary and everything will change from that moment on," President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned.

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