Ethnic Kurds are helping members of the Islamic State in the battle for the key Syrian Kurdish town of Kobani, sharing their knowledge of the local terrain and language with the extremists, according to Iraqi and Kurdish officials.

Ten Iraqi peshmerga fighters have entered Kobani, the first of a group of 150 Kurdish troops on their way into the embattled Syrian border town, activists said.

For the first time since the Islamic State group launched an offensive on the Syrian border town of Kobani last month, a small group of Syrian rebels yesterday entered the town from Turkey in a push to help Kurdish fighters there battle the militants, activists and Kurdish officials said.

President Barack Obama and military chiefs from more than 20 nations gathered in a show of strength against Islamic State (IS) fighters in Iraq and Syria.

Planes believed to have been sent by the US-led coalition have struck positions held by Islamic State militants near a Syrian border town that beleaguered Kurdish forces have been struggling to defend.

Islamic State fighters backed by tanks and artillery have pushed into an embattled Syrian town on the border with Turkey, sparking heavy street battles with the town’s Kurdish defenders.

Islamic State (IS) fighters backed by tanks have captured 16 Kurdish villages over the past 24 hours in northern Syria near the Turkish border, prompting civilians to flee their homes amid fears of retribution by the extremists sweeping through the area, activists said.