Kurdish forces in the Syrian town of Kobane repulsed a new attempt by Islamic State fighters to cut off the border with Turkey as troops battled the jihadists in neighbouring Iraq.
It came as the US military said it had unleashed 25 more air strikes in Syria and Iraq since Friday, hitting Islamic State (IS) jihadists and oil infrastructure they control.
But while Washington said it saw “encouraging” signs, it warned the raids might not prevent the fall of Kobane, and its priority remained the campaign against IS in Iraq.
Despite a wave of coalition air strikes in recent weeks, Iraqi forces are struggling to regain and hold ground from jihadists.
As fighting raged, Iraqi MPs finally agreed on the choices of defence and interior ministers to spearhead the pushback, in a moved welcomed as a “very positive step forward” by US Secretary of State John Kerry.
Heavy IS mortar fire hit the Syrian side of the border crossing with Turkey which is the Kurdish fighters` sole avenue for resupply and the only escape route for remaining civilians, Kurdish official Idris Nassen told.
At least three rounds crashed onto Turkey’s side of the border, one of them near a hill where the Turkish army is deployed.
The jihadists launched a fierce attack from the east towards the border gate before being pushed back, Nassen said.
IS suffered heavy losses in the fighting and was forced to send in reinforcements, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
The jihadists lost 21 of their people to air strikes and another 14 in ground fighting on Friday, the Britain-based monitoring group said. The Kurds lost three of their fighters.
UN Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura warned earlier this month that about 12,000 civilians remained in and around Kobane and risked “massacre” if the jihadists cut off the border.
Overnight coalition air strikes on IS targets elsewhere in Syria killed 10 civilians, the said the Observatory, which has a wide network of sources inside the country.Of 15 air strikes in Syria since Friday, 12 were aimed at “degrading and destroying their oil producing, collecting, storage and transportation infrastructure,” the US Central Command said.
Three other strikes in Syria hit two IS fighting positions near Kobane and a military camp in mainly jihadist-held Raqa province.
The US commander overseeing the air war hailed “encouraging” signs in the defence of Kobane, but said the town could still fall and that Iraq remained the coalition’s priority.
“Iraq is our main effort and it has to be, and the things that we’re doing right now in Syria are being done primarily to shape the conditions in Iraq,” said General Lloyd Austin.
