IS positions bombed as battle wages on for Kobani

The US-led coalition intensified its aerial bombardment of Islamic State positions in the Syrian border town of Kobani yesterday as the extremist group fought street battles with Kurdish forces and reportedly rushed in reinforcements.

The battle for the town near the frontier with Turkey has emerged as a major early test for the air campaign aimed at rolling back and eventually destroying the extremist group. It has also strained ties between Washington and Nato ally Turkey over the long-term US strategy in Syria.

Ankara has called for the creation of a buffer zone inside Syria to secure the border, but the White House and Pentagon said that the US is not considering that option. Such a zone would be costly and complex to enforce.

Columns of smoke rose over Kobani as warplanes buzzed overhead. Two strong explosions — apparently from an air strike — echoed from the edge of the town, a cluster of low-slung concrete buildings nestled in rolling hills.

The crackle of gunfire and blasts could be heard on the Turkish side, where people watched the fighting unfold from a stretch of farmland.

The coalition air strikes have forced some Islamic State militants out of Kobani.

The US Central Command said five air strikes south of Kobani had destroyed an Islamic State group support building and two vehicles, and damaged a training camp. The strikes also hit two groups of Islamic State fighters, it said in a statement.

“Indications are that Kurdish militia there continue to control most of the city and are holding out against Isil,” it said, using an acronym for the Islamic State group, which controls large parts of Syria and Iraq. But the Pentagon has said the town may yet fall to the extremists because air power alone cannot prevent it.

The Islamic State fighters managed to capture a police station in the east of Kobani, said the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. It said 11 Islamic State fighters were killed, adding that Kurdish fighters captured four jihadis. The station was later struck by coalition jets.

The Observatory said Kurdish forces had surrounded the jihadists near the station and that heavy fighting was under way.

The Observatory said the militants had seized more than a third of Kobani, but Kurdish officials disputed that.