MOSCOW, October 6 (RIA Novosti) - Airstrikes against Islamic State (IS) targets conducted by the US-led international coalition have failed to stop the advance of IS militants on the Syrian town of Kobani, The Guardian reported Monday citing a senior speaker for the Kurdish fighters.
"Air strikes alone are really not enough to defeat Isis [IS] in Kobani," Idris Nassan said, explaining that the IS militants are besieging the town on three sides, "and fighter jets simply cannot hit each and every Isis fighter on the ground."
He added that the IS militants had adapted their tactics to take into account the constant threat from the air. "Each time a jet approaches, they leave their open positions, they scatter and hide. What we really need is ground support. We need heavy weapons and ammunition in order to fend them off and defeat them," Nassan said.
Islamic State militants have been besieging Kobani, also known as Ayn al-Arab, one of the largest towns in the Kurdish region bordering Turkey - for the last three weeks.
According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) the conflict forced at least 300,000 people to flee their homes.
Last Wednesday, Salih Muslim, the leader of the Syrian Kurdish party PYD, said that Islamic State (IS) militants were likely to slaughter the residents of Kobani, unless Kurdish fighters receive the weapons, promised to them by the West.
The IS, also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS), or the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), has been fighting the Syrian government since 2012. In June 2014, the group extended its attacks to northern and western Iraq, declaring a caliphate on the territories over which it had control.
In August, the United States started launching airstrikes against IS positions in Iraq. In September, the attacks of the US and its allies were extended to Syria.
