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Kurds halt ISIS thrust into Kobane

AFP, Mursitpinar
Kurdish fighters halted a thrust by Islamic State group jihadists towards the heart of the battleground Syrian town of Kobane yesterday, after the UN warned thousands of civilians risked massacre.
The pre-dawn attack came after the IS militants overran the Kurdish headquarters in the border town on Friday, sparking fears they would cut off the last escape route to neighbouringTurkey.
But US officials warned that while world attention is focused on Kobane, the jihadists have been piling pressure on government troops in neighbouring Iraq, leaving the army in a ’fragile" position in Anbar province between Baghdad and the Syrian border.
The renewed ISIS drive on the centre of Kobane sparked 90 minutes of heavy fighting with the town's Kurdish defenders before the jihadists fell back, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
US-led coalition warplanes also carried out two air strikes on ISIS targets south and east of the town early yesterday, according to the Britain-based monitoring group, which has a wide network of sources inside Syria.
US-led warplanes have intensified air strikes against ISIS, which has been attacking Kobane for three weeks, but the Pentagon has said that there are limits to what can be done without troops on the ground.Small groups of Kurdish fighters were trying to harry the encircling jihadists with operations across the front line, Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP.
UN envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura warned Friday that 12,000 or so civilians still in or near Kobane, including about 700 mainly elderly people in the town centre, "will most likely be massacred" by ISIS if the town falls.
Twenty-one jihadists, including two suicide bombers, were killed along with eight Kurdish fighters in clashes in the town on Friday, the Observatory said.
Another 16 ISIS militants died in coalition air raids across the provinces of Aleppo - which includes Kobane - and Raqa, where ISIS has its main Syrian stronghold, it said.
Turkey has tightened security of its
porous Syrian border after the escalating fighting in Kobane sparked the exodus of 200,000 refugees over the frontier.
Turkey has been deeply reluctant to allow weapons or Kurdish fighters to cross the border despite repeated nights of protests among its own large Kurdish minority that have left 31 people dead.
However, US on Friday reported "progress" in pressing Turkey to participate in the fight
against the ISIS, noting a pledge from Ankara to train and equip moderate Syrian rebels.
Meanwhile, Pentagon officials on Friday said military chiefs from the 21 countries already committed to the US-led coalition are to meet in Washington next week to discuss strategy.
The extraordinary meeting will be held on Tuesday at Andrews Air Force base out-
side the US capital.
And Washington on Friday warned of possible attacks against Western targets in reprisal for its military campaign against the jihadists.
The US State Department regularly updates its notice on worldwide risks, but the last update had been in April.
"Authorities believe there is an increased likelihood of reprisal attacks against US,
Western and coalition partner interests throughout the world, especially in the Middle East, North Africa, Europe and Asia," the notice said.
Meanwhile, in Iraq, ISIS militants executed an Iraqi news cameraman and 12 other people on Friday in several towns and villages north of Baghdad, officials, relatives and witnesses said.