News Digest

Amid airstrikes, IS intensifies fight for key town on Turkish border

Despite fresh U.S.-led air strikes and now British warplanes over head, Islamic State (IS) fighters continued their assault on the strategic Syrian town of Kobane near the Turkish border on Saturday, shelling it with mortars for the first time. Capturing Kobane would give the militants strategic control over a new route into Syria. The extremist advance on the town has sent 160,000 refugees streaming into Turkey over the past 10 days, and officials there say American airstrikes have done little to dislodge IS fighters.

The situation has intensified since the morning. We are not letting anyone through right now because it is not secure at all. There is constant fighting, you can hear it

Abuzer Kelepce, a provincial official from the pro-Kurdish party HDP

Turkey has so far declined to take a frontline role in the U.S.-led coalition against Islamic State, but officials said earlier this week Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been negotiating on what Turkey’s role might now be. In comments published on Saturday, Erdogan had said Turkish troops could be used to help set up a secure zone in Syria, if there was an international agreement to establish such a haven for refugees fleeing IS fighters.