International Shia News Agency

IS Militants Close In On Syrian Border Town

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) – Islamic State has seized a strategic hill overlooking a Syrian border town despite airstrikes from the US and its Arab allies.

Kurdish fighters have been battling IS militants around Kobani after a nearly three-week siege of the town.

Idris Nahsen, a Kobani official, said the militants were less than a mile from the town, which was hit by rockets and mortars during the fighting.

The US carried out three airstrikes in Syria over the weekend on IS positions.

The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights claimed at least 33 IS militants and 23 Kurdish defenders were killed during the fighting.

One shell was fired from inside Syria and hit a house in the Turkish village of Buyuk Kendirci, injuring four people.

IS began its advance on Kobani on 16 September, forcing around 186,000 people to flee across the border into Turkey.

It has seized swathes of Syria and Iraq after declaring an Islamic caliphate in June, including a long stretch of the Syria-Turkey border.

The Turkish parliament authorised involvement in the campaign against IS last week, but no military operations have been announced.

It comes after a masked IS militant was filmed murdering British aid worker Alan Henning and threatening US hostage Peter Kassig in a video released on Friday.

The 47-year-old former taxi driver, from Eccles in Greater Manchester, was captured as he drove an ambulance full of aid supplies into Syria on 27 December last year.

Source: Sky News

www.shafaqna.com/english

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