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US-led air strikes hit key Isis targets amid battle with Kurdish forces
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US-led coalition jets struck Islamic State positions in north-east Syria for the second day in a row on Saturday, in an area where the militants are battling Kurdish forces, a Kurdish official and a group monitoring the war said.
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Later, the Combined Joint Task Force said in a statement that the US and its partners had staged 10 air strikes in Iraq and Syria in a 24-hour period.
The strikes, which began on Friday, hit a fighting position and tactical units near the Syrian cities of Kobani and Al Hasakah.
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In Iraq, four strikes targeted a large Isis unit, two tactical units, four buildings and vehicles near Kirkuk. Four other attacks near Mosul, Falluja and Rawah hit a tactical unit, vehicles and a structure.
The Kurdish YPG militia, which has emerged as the coalition’s main partner fighting Isis on the ground in Syria, has made significant gains in recent weeks in the north, cutting an important supply route from Iraq. Last week Isis appeared to try to seize back the initiative, attacking Kurdish fighters using tanks and heavy weapons close to the Turkish border.
Redur Xelil, spokesman for the YPG, said air strikes hit areas close to the town of Tal Tamer, south of the Turkish border, overnight on Friday and on Saturday.
“There is fighting which continues around Tel Tamer but the coalition warplanes have targeted the area, the last strikes were a short while ago,” he said by telephone.
The overnight strikes were the first on the area since last month, said Rami Abdulrahman, who runs the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group. There were reports of casualties on both sides on Saturday, the Observatory said, without giving precise figures.
Backed by Iraqi Kurdish peshmerga fighters and air strikes, the YPG defeated Isis in the border town of Kobani in January. The battle for Kobani was the first publicly declared example of US-led forces closely coordinating with a ground force to battle Isis. Air strikes in Syria began on 23 September.
The US says it wants to train and equip non-jihadist groups to fight the militants elsewhere in Syria and the training was due to get underway in Jordan this month. It is not clear which rebel fighters it plans to train.
