US air strikes target Islamic State fighters in Kobani

Turkish soldiers stand guard as Syrian Kurdish refugees wait to cross into Turkey. Photo: Reuters

Beirut: War planes from the US-led coalition have carried out air strikes near a key Syrian city besieged by Islamic State fighters, hitting it with shellfire for the first time.

The action around Kobani, where at least 150,000 refugees have crossed into Turkey, appeared to signify the opening of a new front for United States air strikes in Syria, and came on a day when several other strikes took place in Raqqa, the de facto headquarters of the Islamic State's forces, and other sites in the eastern part of the country.

Kobani has been the subject of a week-long onslaught by Islamic State militants.

US planes have carried out air strikes near Kobani in Syria. Photo: AP

Despite Saturday's air strikes, IS fighters did not halt their offensive. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said IS fighters were still able to shell eastern parts of Kobani, wounding several people.

The US military's Central Command said a building and two armoured vehicles used by Islamic State forces were destroyed as part of seven air strikes carried out around Kobani.

It said an airfield, garrison and training camp near the IS stronghold of Raqqa were also among the targets damaged. The air strikes were conducted by the US, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates.

Collapsed buildings in Aleppo at a site reportedly hit by Syrian government forces. Photo: Reuters

'We have reports that 35 [IS] fighters were killed in the strikes, and tanks were destroyed,' said Ojlan Esso, a spokesman for the Syrian Kurdish force in Kobani.

Three air strikes in Iraq destroyed four IS armed vehicles and a 'fighting position' south-west of Erbil, Centcom said.Two British fighter jets also flew over Iraq, a day after the UK parliament authorised bombing raids against IS militants there, but used the mission to gather intelligence rather than carry out air strikes, the ministry of defence said.

Kobani is on the border with Turkey, and capturing it would give the militants strategic control of a new stretch of the frontier and possibly a new route between Turkey and Syria.

At least 150,000 Syrian Kurds have fled to Turkey. Photo: AFP

The Islamic State fighters began their march toward Kobani on September 15, and Syrian Kurdish fighters in the area have been trying to stop them.

For more than a week, Kurdish leaders from Iraq and Syria have been calling for the US-led coalition to strike the IS fighters near Kobani. The Kurds say their weapons are no match for sophisticated arms in the hands of the militants, who looted Iraqi army bases as they took over swaths of Iraq in June.

Symbolically, the modest strikes around Kobani demonstrated US and Arab commitment to the direct defence of the Kurds in an area that, village by village, has been falling to IS forces.

Kurds watching the fighting were gleeful as jets roared overhead and two columns of smoke could be seen from another front miles away. They hoped it meant that US war planes had finally come to their aid.

For all the action in the air, it was unclear how much progress was being made. US strategists and retired officers like General David Petraeus, the former commander of Centcom, have said that air strikes alone, without co-ordinated ground attacks, may halt but are unlikely to reverse the Islamic State's territorial gains.

But the US has ruled out using combat troops on the ground, as have Britain and other allies, even while agreeing to provide air power.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan signalled a shift in Ankara's position by saying for the first time that Turkish troops could be used to help set up a secure zone in Syria, if there was international agreement to establish one as a haven for those fleeing the fighting.

As US-led forces hit IS fighters over the weekend, SOHR said the Syrian army had intensified its bombing campaign in the west. Syrian warplanes used projectiles, including barrel bombs, in Hama, Idlib, Homs and Aleppo provinces and around Damascus, the Observatory said on Friday. At least 14 people were killed, it said.

Washington Post, New York Times, Reuters