The Kurdish defenders of the Syrian border town of Kobane have held back advancing Islamic State fighters, with the US supplying air support.
BBC
The Kurds repulsed a pre-dawn attack and still control the town's border crossing point with Turkey.
Correspondents say the crossing point is a vital supply and exit route.
The Pentagon reports that US planes have been bombing IS targets to the north and south of Kobane since Friday.
US and other aircraft from the international coalition also carried out air strikes on IS targets inside Iraq as well as dropping supplies to Iraqi government forces at Baiji, where Iraq's biggest oil refinery is located.
In Iraq's Anbar province, officials reportedly made an urgent appeal for military help against IS.
Haze and dust
As the sounds of battle continued on Saturday, haze and dust obscured Kobane, making air strikes more difficult but not impossible, the BBC's Quentin Sommerville said in a tweet from the Syria-Turkey border.
The Kurdish militiamen have pushed back the latest IS advance but the militants are being easily resupplied from the south and the east and are able to launch further attacks, our correspondent says.
Amid the sound of gunfire, black plumes of smoke could be seen rising from the south and west of the town, another foreign journalist at the scene, Derek Henry Flood, tweeted.
According to the Pentagon, the new US air strikes on IS targets at Kobane hit an IS fighting position, damaged a command and control facility, destroyed a staging building; struck two small units of fighters; and destroyed three lorries.
Several hundred civilians are still believed to be in Kobane. UN envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura has warned they could be massacred by IS if the town falls.
Read more http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-29581728http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-29581728
The Kurds repulsed a pre-dawn attack and still control the town's border crossing point with Turkey.
Correspondents say the crossing point is a vital supply and exit route.
The Pentagon reports that US planes have been bombing IS targets to the north and south of Kobane since Friday.
US and other aircraft from the international coalition also carried out air strikes on IS targets inside Iraq as well as dropping supplies to Iraqi government forces at Baiji, where Iraq's biggest oil refinery is located.
In Iraq's Anbar province, officials reportedly made an urgent appeal for military help against IS.
Haze and dust
As the sounds of battle continued on Saturday, haze and dust obscured Kobane, making air strikes more difficult but not impossible, the BBC's Quentin Sommerville said in a tweet from the Syria-Turkey border.
The Kurdish militiamen have pushed back the latest IS advance but the militants are being easily resupplied from the south and the east and are able to launch further attacks, our correspondent says.
Amid the sound of gunfire, black plumes of smoke could be seen rising from the south and west of the town, another foreign journalist at the scene, Derek Henry Flood, tweeted.
According to the Pentagon, the new US air strikes on IS targets at Kobane hit an IS fighting position, damaged a command and control facility, destroyed a staging building; struck two small units of fighters; and destroyed three lorries.
Several hundred civilians are still believed to be in Kobane. UN envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura has warned they could be massacred by IS if the town falls.
Read more http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-29581728http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-29581728
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