Islamic State militants press assault on town on Syria-Turkey border

http://www.fayobserver.com/military/islamic-state-militants-press-assault-on-town-on-syria-turkey/article_4c29233c-82a6-5811-8920-0483461ee55c.html



Militants with the Islamic State group are seen after placing their group's flag on a hilltop at the eastern side of the town of Kobani, Syria, on Monday, Oct. 6, 2014.

Islamic State militants press assault on town on Syria-Turkey border
Posted: Monday, October 6, 2014 7:36 pm | Updated: 6:54 am, Tue Oct 7, 2014.

MURSITPINAR, Turkey - Islamic State militants backed by tanks and artillery waged a relentless assault Monday against a Syrian border town, advancing close enough to raise two of the group's black flags on the outskirts despite stiff resistance from the town's Kurdish defenders.

Just across the frontier in Turkey, the steady thud of artillery, sharp crackle of gunfire and plumes of smoke rising over the rooftops testified to the intensity of the fight for Kobani, also known as Ayn Arab.

Since it began its offensive in mid-September, the Islamic State group has barrelled through one Kurdish village after another as it closed in on Kobani. The assault has forced some 160,000 Syrians to flee and put a strain on Kurdish forces, who have struggled to push back the extremists even with the aid of limited U.S.-led airstrikes.

Capturing Kobani would give the Islamic State group, which already rules a huge stretch of territory spanning the Syria-Iraq border, 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 resistance and give the group full control of a large stretch of the Turkish-Syrian border.