IS forces closing in on Syrian-Kurdish town

Beirut, Oct 1 (IANS/EFE) The Islamic State Sunni radical group advanced Tuesday on Kobani, the Syrian-Kurdish town on the Turkish border, and have come within two or three kilometres of the strategic town, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, or SOHR, said.

The London-based NGO noted that the militant group is approaching from the city's eastern outskirts and said it has never before been so close to the town it has been trying to take in an offensive that began Sep 16.

The president of the Kobani Defence and Protection Agency, Esmat Sheikh Hasan, said that Protection Units of the Kurdish People confronted IS Tuesday in an area east of Kobani, but he denied that the extremists are making any significant progress.

According to SOHR, the IS has taken control of 70 villages around Kobani since the beginning of the offensive, causing more than 200,000 people who had crowded into the town to seek refuge in neighbouring Turkey and other parts of Syria.

Warplanes of the US-led international coalition attacked IS positions near Kobani Tuesday, but there was no imemdiate word as to casualties.

In late June, the IS proclaimed an Islamic Caliphate in the areas under its control in Syria and Iraq. On Sep 23, Washington announced the start of airstrikes by an international coalition on IS-controlled targets inside Syria.

--IANS/EFE

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