MOSCOW, October 10 (RIA Novosti) - The United States has launched nine more airstrikes against Islamic State (IS) militants sieging the Syrian Kurdish town of Kobani near the Turkish border, razing IS-held buildings and machinery, the US Central Command reported late on Thursday.
"US military forces continued to attack ISIL terrorists in Syria today using bomber aircraft to conduct nine airstrikes," the Command said in a news release.
The air raid destroyed four IS-occupied houses, a tank, a heavy machine gun, as well as a handful of IS military units.
The Central Command added in its statement that two separate airstrikes targeted insurgents' positions near the Mount of Sinjar in Iraq. The area became a focal point in the widening war in August after thousands of Yazidi Kurds, a minority persecuted by IS, fled their villages in northern Iraq to seek shelter in the mountains.
The strikes were conducted as part of US President Barack Obama's strategy to "degrade and destroy" the Islamic State. The United States began launching airstrikes against the IS in Iraq on August 8 and later formed a coalition that currently comprises more than 60 countries, according to the US State Department.
Earlier in the day, Canadian Air Force jets were reported to have touched down in Kuwait and Bahrain to take part in the US-led campaign against IS. According to Bahraini media, six Canadian CF-18 fighters in Kuwait and a fleet of two maritime patrol CP-140 planes, a CC-150 transport aircraft and a military aerial refueling aircraft in Bahrain will have a maintenance crew of 600 Canadian personnel.
This comes after the Canadian parliament authorized on Tuesday airstrikes against IS targets in Iraq for six months. Canada stated explicitly that no ground troops would be involved.
