Kurdish militiamen are putting up a fierce fight to defend a Syrian town near the border with Turkey but are struggling to repel the Islamic State group, which is advancing and pushing in from two sides, Syrian activists and Kurdish officials said Saturday.
The battle for Kobani is still raging despite more than two weeks of airstrikes by the US-led coalition targeting the militants in and around the town. The strikes, which are aimed at rolling back the militants' gains, appear to have done little to blunt their onslaught on Kobani, which began in mid-September.
The Syrian Kurdish border town is the latest focus of the Islamic State group, which has rampaged across northern Syria and western and northern Iraq since the summer, swallowing up large chunks of territory and imposing its reign of terror.
Capturing Kobani, also known by its Arabic name of Ayn Arab, would give the group a direct link between its positions in the Syrian province of Aleppo and its stronghold of Raqqa, to the east. It would also crush a lingering pocket of Kurdish resistance and give the group full control of a large stretch of the Turkish-Syrian border.
Kurds are determined not to allow Kobani to fall and are fighting zealously, but they have not been able to curb advances by the more heavily armed extremists.
On Friday, the militants seized the so-called Kurdish security quarter — an area in the town's east where Kurdish militiamen maintain security buildings and where the police station and other local government offices are located.
A senior Kurdish official, Ismet Sheikh Hasan, said clashes were focused in the southern and eastern parts of the town. He said the situation was dire and appealed for international help.
A video posted online Saturday by a group affiliated with the militants showed what it said were Islamic State fighters fanning out in some streets of Kobani amid heavy gunfire. Militants are shown firing rocket-propelled grenades and heavy machine guns.
US Central Command said it conducted airstrikes north and south of Kobani Friday and Saturday.
Hasan said the airstrikes were not effective and urged the international community and the UN to intervene, predicting a massacre if the militants seize control of Kobani.
He also appealed to Turkey to open a corridor that would allow remaining civilians to leave Kobani and arms to enter the town.
More than 500 people have been killed since the Islamic State group's offensive on Kobani started on Sept. 16.
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