MOSCOW, October 7 (RIA Novosti) - Airstrikes by the US-led coalition have hit Islamic State (IS) positions in the Kurdish Syrian town of Kobani shortly after IS fighters advanced into the city, The Guardian reported Tuesday.
"On Tuesday morning journalists on the Turkish side of the border heard the sound of warplanes before two large plumes of smoke billowed just west of Kobani," according to The Guardian .
IS tanks and artillery managed to enter into Kobani Monday evening, fighting street battles with the local Kurdish population.
"They [Islamic State] are fighting inside the city. Hundreds of civilians have left," The Guardian quoted Rami Abdurrahman who heads the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights as saying Tuesday. "Islamic State controls three neighborhoods on the eastern side of Kobani. They are trying to enter the town from the southwest as well."
Earlier on Monday, the IS raised its flag on the outskirts of Kobani following continuous fighting.
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, making almost 200,000 people flee their homes and killing more than 170 Kurdish fighters and at least 20 civilians, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
The Islamic State is a Sunni jihadi group that has been fighting the Syrian government since 2012. In June 2014, it launched an offensive in Iraq, seizing vast areas in both countries and announcing the establishment of an Islamic caliphate on the territories under its control.
Kurds are one of the ethnic groups in Iraq and Syria that have suffered greatly from IS violence.
In September US President Barack Obama announced his decision to form an international anti-IS coalition. Washington extended its airstrikes against the militants into Syria, while continuing airstrikes against the group's targets in Iraq. Obama said the United States would arm and equip Kurds, Iraqis and Syria's moderate opposition in an effort to eradicate the IS.
