KOBANI, October 7 -- Fresh air strikes by the US-led coalition have hit positions held by fighters from the Islamic State (IS) in the southwest of the key Syrian border city of Kobane, also known as Ayn al-Arab. Tuesday's strikes came a day after IS fighters pushed into Kobane, seizing three districts in the city's east and raising the group's black flags after fierce street battles with its Syrian-Kurdish defenders. Reports from the Turkish border near Kobane on Tuesday, said that coalition air strikes had hit the centre of the city. "About 40 minutes after the air strikes, IS started to shell inside the city centre too," Akinci said. Despite's IS's advances, the AFP news agency reported that a Kurdish flag could still be seen flying from a roof in the centre of the town. Idris Nahsen, a Kurdish official still in Kobane, told AFP by telephone that IS was still trying hard to capture the city, but that resistance from fighters from the Kurdish YPG force had stopped their progress on Monday and last night. The US-led coalition airstrikes, which continued in the night and the morning, are "helping but are not enough", he added, calling for arms and ammunition to be supplied to the Kurdish fighters. Nahsen said the Kurds were in contact with both the US-led coalition and Turkey in search of more assistance. "We need help from the international community. Either we finish them or they will finish us," he said. The clashes are the heaviest since the start of the three-week offensive as IS tries to bring in more fighters to take control of the city. Kobane has become a crucial battleground in the international fight against IS fighters. The battle has forced an estimated 186,000 civilians to flee to Turkey. The Turkish parliament in Ankara last week authorised the government to join a US-led campaign against IS, but no plans for military action have been announced so far. Reports from Urfa in Turkey, said that the country had found itself in an "incredibly difficult position". "Turkey doesn't want to see an autonomous Kurdish-area on its border with Syria, while it doesn't want ISIL to be in power either. And it doesn't want Syrian president Bashar al-Assad to take control either," he said. Smith said that Kurds were asking Turkey to allow more of its fighters into Syria, but "it doesn't want to see it backfire in the future". Source: Agencies
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