US-led coalition ramps up strikes on Syrian town as militants press offensive

MURSITPINAR, Turkey — The U.S.-led coalition intensified its aerial bombardment of Islamic State positions Thursday in the Syrian border town of Kobani as the extremist group fought street battles with Kurdish forces and reportedly rushed in reinforcements.

The battle for the town near the frontier with Turkey has emerged as a major early test for the air campaign aimed at rolling back and eventually destroying the extremist group.

It has also strained ties between Washington and Ankara over the long-term U.S. strategy in Syria. On Thursday, the U.S. special envoy for the coalition, retired Marine Gen. John Allen, and NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg were in Turkey to press the country to join military operations.

Turkish officials have said that while they do not want Kobani to fall, they will not take on a greater role until the coalition outlines a broader strategy that also includes attacking Syrian President Bashar Assad, who is best positioned to benefit from any rollback of the Islamic State group.

But attacking Assad's regime "is not the focus of our international coalition and not the focus of our efforts by the United States," State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said.

Psaki said Allen and Turkish officials discussed ways to advance the effort against the Islamic State group and said a joint military planning team will visit Ankara early next week.

"Both sides also agreed that we will continue a dynamic and deepening bilateral consultation process across the multiple lines of effort against ISIL, including military support, countering foreign fighters, counter-finance, humanitarian assistance, and de-legitimizing ISIL's messaging and rhetoric," she said using and acronym for the Islamic State group.

U.S. officials said Thursday the U.S. is largely talking to Turkey about other things it could do besides inserting ground forces into the fight: allowing U.S. and coalition aircraft to fly over Turkish territory; allowing its air base in Incirlik, some 160 kilometers (100 miles) from the Syrian border, to be used by U.S. or coalition planes or for logistics and training; and equipping moderate Syrian opposition forces fighting to topple Assad.

The officials were not authorized to discuss meetings underway between U.S. and Turkish officials in Ankara and requested anonymity.

The fight for Kobani has brought Syria's civil war yet again to Turkey's doorstep, and for weeks the U.S. and its allies have pressed Ankara to take a more robust role in the coalition. In addition, Kurds have held massive demonstrations across Turkey in which they accuse the government, which has deployed its tanks just across the frontier, of doing nothing to save the town.

Ankara is suspicious of the Syrian Kurdish forces fighting in Kobani, seeing them as an extension of the Kurdish PKK, which waged a long and bloody insurgency against Turkey.

Responding to the criticism, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said it was unrealistic to expect Turkey to launch a ground war against the Islamic State group on its own.

"ISIL poses a grave threat to the Iraqi people, to the Syrian people, to the wider region, and to NATO nations," Stoltenberg said. "So it is important that the whole international community stays united in this long-term effort."

Cavusoglu said Turkey is prepared to play a bigger part once a deal is reached with the coalition. "Turkey will not hold back from carrying out its role," he said.

Secretary of State John Kerry and Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu have spoken at least twice this week.

In Kobani, columns of smoke rose as warplanes buzzed overhead Thursday. Two strong explosions — apparently from an airstrike — echoed from the edge of the town, a cluster of low-slung concrete buildings nestled in rolling hills.

The crackle of gunfire and blasts could be heard on the Turkish side, where people watched the fighting unfold from a stretch of farmland.

The U.S. Central Command said five airstrikes south of Kobani since Wednesday had destroyed an Islamic State group support building and two vehicles, and damaged a training camp. The strikes also hit two groups of Islamic State fighters, it said in a statement.

"Indications are that Kurdish militia there continue to control most of the city and are holding out against ISIL," it said, using an acronym for the Islamic State group, which controls large parts of Syria and Iraq.

But the Pentagon has said the town may yet fall to the extremists because air power alone cannot prevent it.

Despite the airstrikes, the Islamic State fighters managed to capture a police station in the east of Kobani, said the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. It said 11 Islamic State fighters were killed, adding that Kurdish fighters captured four jihadis. The station was later struck by coalition jets.

The Observatory, which relies on activists across Syria, said Kurdish forces had surrounded the jihadists near the station and that heavy fighting was underway.

"I can confirm that they don't control a third of the city. There is only a small part of Kobani under the control of Daesh," said local Kurdish official Idriss Nassan, using an Arabic acronym to refer to the Islamic State group.

Both Nassan and the Observatory said more than 20 airstrikes have been conducted in the area since Wednesday afternoon.

Islamic State militants launched their offensive on Kobani in mid-September, capturing several nearby Kurdish villages and steadily strengthening their control around the town. The fighting has forced at least 200,000 residents to flee over the frontier into Turkey.