neighbouring Iraq, which the US military declared its top priority.
As fighting raged on several
fronts, Al-Qaeda's deadly Yemen-based franchise urged Muslims worldwide
to support the IS jihadists in Syria and Iraq.
The
US commander overseeing the air war hailed "encouraging" signs in the
efforts to defend Kobane, but said the town could still fall to
extremists and that confronting IS in Iraq was the coalition's top
focus.
"Iraq is our main effort and it has to be," General Lloyd Austin said.
Six
US-led coalition air strikes hit IS positions in the east of Kobane on
Friday, taking advantage of new coordination with the town's Kurdish
defenders, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
The jihadist group has captured large parts of Syria and Iraq, committing atrocities and declaring an Islamic "caliphate".
The Observatory said IS fighters were now being trained to fly three fighter jets seized from the Syrian military.
It said that former Iraqi army
officers who once served under Saddam Hussein were supervising the
training at the Jarrah military airport in the northern province of
Aleppo.
In Iraq security
forces on Friday fought IS jihadists on two fronts -- in the strategic
city of Ramadi, west of Baghdad, and near militant-held Tikrit to the
north.
Ramadi, the capital of
Anbar province, is one of a dwindling number of areas in the region
where pro-government forces still hold ground, and its loss would be a
major blow for Baghdad.
Iraqi
government forces launched an offensive Friday north of Tikrit, one of a
string of mainly Sunni Arab towns north and west of Baghdad that the
jihadists seized in June.
Iraqi troops have been struggling to retake and hold ground, despite the US-led air bombardments.
But
the US military said that Baghdad was not under "imminent threat" from
the jihadists, despite a string of deadly car bombs in the Iraqi
capital.
"There are not masses of formations of (IS) forces outside of Baghdad about to come in," spokesman Rear Admiral John Kirby said.
- 'Bodies in streets' -
Kobane district chief Anwar Muslim said the US-led strikes had destroyed many IS vehicles and artillery pieces.
"You can see their bodies (IS jihadists) in the streets... Our forces are reinforcing their defensive positions," he told AFP.
Muslim said sniper and mortar fire from jihadists was preventing authorities from evacuating civilians caught up in the battle.
"Their situation is difficult," he added.
Washington revealed it held its
first direct talks last weekend with the main Syrian Kurdish group whose
forces have been battling IS.
Earlier
contacts with the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) had all been
handled through intermediaries, as the group has close ties with the
rebel Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) -- which is on the US terror
blacklist -- over the border in Turkey.
The
PYD has been appealing urgently for weapons to resupply its outgunned
fighters in Kobane, but Washington said it was too early to discuss the
request.
The Kurds claimed to have pushed IS back in parts of Kobane as the coalition intensified its air strikes in recent days.
- Call to mujahedeen -
Warplanes from five Arab states of the Gulf -- Bahrain, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United
Arab Emirates -- have since last month taken part in US-led air strikes on IS targets in Syria.
Al-Qaeda
in the Arabian Peninsula, classified by the United States as the
network's deadliest franchise, in a statement released on Friday urged
Muslims not to participate in the battle against IS.
"We
urge all mujahedeen (Muslim fighters) to set aside their differences
and inter-factional fighting and move instead against the crusade
targeting all" jihadists, it added.
Coalition forces have now carried out more than 100 air strikes near Kobane since September 27.
The
month-old IS assault on the area has sparked an exodus of some 200,000
mainly Kurdish refugees across the border, where the town's plight has
stoked nationalist sentiment among Turkey's own large Kurdish minority.
More
than 180,000 people have been killed in Syria since an uprising against
President Bashar al-Assad's regime began in 2011, escalating into a
multi-sided civil war.
At
least 15 civilians, including three minors, were killed in Syrian regime
air raids on a rebel-held town near the capital on Friday, the
Observatory said.
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