Turkey says Syrian town set to fall to IS

Turkey’s president said Kobani was "about to fall" after Islamic State fighters advanced into the south west of the Syrian Kurdish town, pressing home a three-week assault that has cost a reported 400 lives.

The prospect that the town on the Turkish border could be captured by the militants has increased pressure on Turkey, with the strongest army in the region, to join an international coalition to fight against Islamic State.

Islamic State wants to take Kobani in order to strengthen its grip on the border area and consolidate the territorial gains it has made in Iraq and Syria in recent months. US-led air strikes have so far failed to prevent its advance on Kobani.

Turkish president Tayyip Erdogan said bombing was not enough to defeat Islamic State and Turkey had made clear that additional measures would be needed.

“The problem of ISIS (Islamic State) ... cannot be solved via air bombardment. Right now ... Kobani is about to fall,” he said during a visit to a camp for Syrian refugees.

“We had warned the West. We wanted three things. No-fly zone, a secure zone parallel to that, and the training of moderate Syrian rebels,” he said.

But foreign intervention is complex. While the US and allies have sought to stop ISIS by bombing it from the air, they do not want to arm Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) allies on the ground.

Turkey does not want YPG armed as it fears they will bolster their sister group, the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) — an organisation proscribed as terrorists — which is fighting for autonomy in Turkey’s southeast.

Erdogan said Turkey would intervene if there were threats to Turkish soldiers guarding a historic site in Syria that Ankara regards as its territory. But so far Turkey has made no move to get involved in the fighting across the border.

From across the Turkish border, two Islamic State flags could be seen flying over the eastern side of Kobani. Two air strikes hit the area and sporadic gunfire could be heard.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said it had also documented 412 deaths of civilians and fighters during the three-week battle for Kobani.

Yesterday, plumes of white smoke rose over eastern and central parts of Kobani and two ambulance crossed the border, travelling from Kobani to the Turkish side.

Islamic State fighters were using heavy weapons and shells to hit Kobani, senior Kurdish official Asya Abdullah said from inside the town.

Islamic State, an al-Qaeda offshoot, has ramped up its offensive in recent days against the mainly Kurdish border town, despite being targeted by US-led coalition led air strikes aimed at halting its progress.

An estimated 180,000 people have fled into Turkey from the Kobani region following the Islamic State advance. More than 2,000 Syrian Kurds were evacuated from the town after the latest fighting, a member of the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) said on Monday.