BEIRUT – ISIL fighters on Sunday shelled a beleaguered Syrian Kurdish town near the border with Turkey, as Kurdish militiamen scrambled to repel the extremists' offensive, activists said.
The Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant has pushed to the outskirts of the town of Kobani, also known as Ayn Arab, as it presses its weekslong offensive against the town and its surrounding villages. The assault has forced some 160,000 people to flee across the frontier in one of the biggest single exoduses of Syria's civil war.
ISIL has continued to advance despite airstrikes against its fighters by the U.S. and its Arab allies.
Overnight, coalition strikes targeted ISIL positions around Kobani, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an activist group.
The U.S. military said fighter aircraft conducted two strikes northwest of the city of Raqqa, hitting a large ISIL unit and destroying six militant firing positions. The statement did not specify the location, but Kobani is northwest of Raqqa.
The Observatory said that the airstrikes, combined with heavy clashes on the ground overnight, left at least 16 militants dead. At least 11 Kurdish militiamen were also killed in the fighting.
Authorities were evacuating two villages close to the border.
The fighting between the Islamic State group and the Kurds is one aspect of Syria's multilayered civil war, a conflict that has killed more than 190,000 people since the revolt against President Bashar Assad began in March 2011.
Britain vows to punish ISIL killers
Prime Minister David Cameron vowed to use "all the assets we have" to hunt down and punish the ISIL militants who beheaded British aid worker Alan Henning last week. British fighter jets are involved in the U.S.-led attacks in Iraq — but not in Syria, where the militants are based. In the wake of Henning's death, former senior military chiefs have called for Britain to expand its military operation to Syria.
First U.S. death
A Marine lost in the Persian Gulf after bailing out of an MV-22 Osprey was Cpl. Jordan Spears, 21, of Memphis, Ind., the Department of Defense announced.
Spears was a tilt-rotor crew chief with the Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 163, based at the Marine Corps Air Station Miramar. He enlisted in October 2010 and was on his first deployment.
Spears is the first U.S. casualty from the bombing mission against ISIL in Iraq and Syria.
Spears bailed out of the Osprey on Wednesday when it lost power and appeared in danger of crashing. A second Marine also bailed out and was rescued. He was in stable condition.
The pilot of the Osprey was able to regain control and land aboard the amphibious assault ship Makin Island. The incident occurred shortly after an attempted takeoff.
Los Angeles Times
