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 Previous coalition air strikes have failed to stop the insurgent
offensive on the predominantly-Kurdish Kobani and the outgunned
Kurdish fighters have put up a desperate fight as shells rained down
on the town over the past week.
An estimated 180,000 people have fled across the border into Turkey
to escape the bloodshed. Islamic State fighters have vowed to take
the town within days, saying they would pray in Kobani's mosques for
the Muslim religious festival of Eid al-Adha, which began on
Saturday.
Warplanes from the U.S-led coalition of Western and regional forces
carried out raids in the countryside to the east and south of Kobani
on Friday night, the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human
Rights said.
One Islamic State vehicle had been destroyed.
Kurdish and Islamic State forces battled as night fell and more
shells landed inside the town although there was no immediate word
of casualties, the observatory said.
The Islamic State offensive has intensified in recent days and
Friday's shelling of Kobani was the heaviest yet, according to
Parwer Mohammed Ali, a translator with the Kurdish Democratic Union
Party (PYD) who is inside the town.
"Shelling normally calms at night because ISIS is afraid of being
spotted by the jets but last night they continued the severe
shelling and tried to invade," Parwer said.
Around 90 shells had hit the town and at least two civilians were
killed in Friday's fighting. Three air strikes were audible from the
south and east of the town on Friday evening, Parwer said.
The fighting had died down on Saturday although sporadic heavy
weapons fire could be heard east of Kobani, a Reuters correspondent
said.
Islamic State stepped up its offensive close to the Turkish border
last month, seizing surrounding villages and advancing to within a
few kilometers (miles) of Kobani, which is also known as Ayn
al-Arab. Its capture would allow Islamic State to consolidate its
hold on swathes of territory in Syria and Iraq.
Swift offensives by Islamic State since June have sent shockwaves
through the region and attracted thousands of so-called "foreign
fighters" to their cause.
The United States, with support from Western and regional allies,
has carried out a series of bombing raids against Islamic State to
halt the insurgents' rapid advance.
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BEHEADING
Islamic State militants also executed captured British aid worker
Alan Henning - the fourth Western hostage killed in recent weeks. A
video posted on Friday night showed him being beheaded.
Similar to previous videos, Henning, a taxi-driver from the northern
English town of Salford who had volunteered for a humanitarian
mission, was shown reciting an apparently prepared statement
criticizing Western efforts to confront Islamic State.
The killing drew immediate condemnation from Western leaders.
British Prime Minister David Cameron said it showed "just how
barbaric and repulsive these terrorists are". Everything would be
done to hunt down those responsible, he said.
Earlier, a British Islamic State fighter identified as Abu Saeed
al-Britani appeared in a separate video urging British Muslims to
travel to Syria and Iraq to join Islamic State.
In the video on YouTube, al-Britani, wearing a camouflage shirt and
what appears to be a cast on his right arm, calls British and U.S.
military forces "cowards" in carrying out air strikes instead of
putting troops on the ground.
"So send all your forces. Send them all. Send all your reserves.
Send all of your back-ups, for we'll send them back one by one in
coffins," he said.
(Reporting by Ayla Jean Yackley and Sylvia Westall, Writing by Jonny
Hogg, Editing by Angus MacSwan)
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