MURSITPINAR/BEIRUT (Reuters) – Islamic State forces shelled the Syrian border town of Kobani yesterday and its Kurdish defenders said they were expecting a new assault to try to capture it.
US-led coalition warplanes had struck at Islamic State targets overnight to halt the insurgents’ advance and Saturday’s barrages were less intense than the previous day.
“Clashes continue now, they are shelling on all three fronts. They tried to invade Kobani last night but they were repelled,” senior Kurdish official Asya Abdullah told Reuters from the town yesterday.
“We think they are planning to launch another big attack but YPG is prepared to resist them,” she said, referring to the Kurdish armed group defending it.
Previous coalition air strikes have failed to stop the insurgent offensive and an estimated 180,000 people have fled across the border into Turkey to escape the fighting around Kobani – a conflict now overshadowing Syria’s wider civil war.
Islamic State said they would take the town within days and boasted they would pray in its mosques for the Muslim religious festival of Eid al-Adha, which began yesterday.
In Istanbul, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan reacted angrily to comments by US Vice President Joe Biden suggesting that Turkey had supported groups in Syria linked to al Qaeda.
Turkey has up to now been a reluctant partner in the US-led coalition of Western and regional allies and the new dispute could complicate international efforts to present a united front against Islamic State.
The insurgents stepped up their offensive close to the Turkish border last month, seizing surrounding villages and advancing to within a few kilometres (miles) of Kobani, also known as Ayn al-Arab. Its capture would allow Islamic State to consolidate its hold on swathes of territory in Syria and Iraq.
