Islamic State ‘targeted by strikes on Syria border’

Islamic State fighters besieging the Syrian town of Kobane on the Turkish border have been targeted by air strikes, reports from the area say.

Warplanes circled through Friday night and explosions were heard in the early hours.

Kurdish fighters have been defending the town from an advance by Islamic State militants.

There has been no word from the US-led coalition on whether it carried out air strikes in the area.

Kobane has become a flashpoint over the past week, as an estimated 140,000 civilians have fled the town and surrounding area.

Those displaced Kurds have crossed the nearby border with Turkey.

The situation has been tense, with Turkish troops trying to prevent Turkish and Syrian Kurds crossing the border to help defend the town.

Overnight, the head of the US armed forces said air strikes in Syria were damaging the jihadist group, but said air power alone was not enough to defeat the militants.

A UK-based activist group, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said air strikes continued on Saturday in Syria, with IS targets in the central province of Homs hit for the first time.

Strikes were also reported in the town of Minbej, east of Aleppo, for the first time, as well as new strikes on the city of Raqqa, which serves as IS headquarters, the activist group said.

The targets were far away from positions held by Syrian government forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad, the Observatory’s director told the AFP news agency.