US-led air strikes in Syria were reported today to have killed more than 500 militants in a month, as fighting raged in the embattled border town of Kobane.
An AFP correspondent across the frontier in Turkey reported fierce clashes in several parts of Kobane early morning today, with heavy gun and mortar fire.
The town´s Kurdish defenders have been holding out against an assault by the self styled “Islamic State” militant group for more than a month, buoyed in recent days by a promise of Iraqi Kurdish reinforcements and air dropped US weapons.
The air strikes have killed 553 people since their launch, the pro Syrian rebel Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, including 464 IS fighters and 57 militants from Al-Qaeda affiliate al-Nusra Front.
Thirty-two civilians have also been killed, including six children and five women, said the Britain-based Observatory, which relies on a wide network of sources inside Syria.
