(MENAFN- The Peninsula) Kurdish fighters supported by US-led air strikes held back jihadists attacking a Syrian border town yesterday, following an international outcry at the murder of a British hostage by the Islamic State group.
Dozens of militants with the IS organisation - which has seized large parts of Syria and Iraq -were reported killed in the latest coalition raids.
The dusty Syrian town of Kobane on the Turkish border has become a key battleground between IS jihadists and their opponents, who include Kurdish fighters as well as the United States and its allies.
The US military said four air strikes hit the Kobane area overnight.
Fighting raged yesterday as IS militants attempted to seize a strategic hilltop that would give them access to the town, activists said.
Mortar rounds pounded the town as smoke rose above it, an AFP team on the Turkish side of the border said.
"The resistance is continuing. The danger has not yet been overcome," Sebahat Tuncel, a Kurdish member of Turkey's parliament, told reporters after visiting Kobane.
Five jihadists were killed in American air raids near the town, as well as 30 more around Shadadi in northeastern Syria, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
IS militants fired at least 80 mortar rounds on Friday into Kobane, also known as Ain Al Arab.
The fighting killed at least 10 Kurdish militia members, said the Britain-based Observatory, which monitors the conflict.
But activist Mustafa Ebdi said Kurdish fighters had been buoyed by their success at holding off the assault so far, noting that the jihadists had hoped to capture the town by yesterday for the Muslim Eid Al Adha festival.
"So far they have failed to enter the town," Ebdi said.
"Clashes continue now, they are shelling on all three fronts. They tried to invade Kobani last night but they were repelled," senior Kurdish official Asya Abdullah said from the town yesterday.
"We think they are planning to launch another big attack but YPG is prepared to resist them.," she said, referring to the Kurdish armed group defending it.
IS began its advance towards Kobane on September 16, seeking to cement its grip over a long stretch of the border.
It has prompted a mass exodus of residents from the town and the surrounding countryside, with some 186,000 fleeing into Turkey.
Syrian state media also reported coalition strikes yesterday in Al Quriyah in the eastern province of Deir Ezzor, with a tank destroyed.
In neighbouring Iraq, unidentified gunmen killed 10 soldiers and Shia allied militiamen in two separate attacks in Diyala province northeast of the capital Baghdad.
American bombers and fighter jets also carried out five air strikes against IS in Iraq, the US military said.
On Friday night, IS released a video showing the execution of Alan Henning, a 47-year-old British volunteer driver who went to Syria with a Muslim charity.
A masked militant directly addressed British Prime Minister David Cameron, who has sent RAF bombers to strike jihadists in Iraq as part of the US-led alliance. "The blood of David Haines was on your hands, Cameron," he said, referring to another British aid worker killed by the group.
"Alan Henning will also be slaughtered, but his blood is on the hands of the British parliament," he declared.
A fellow aid worker from America, Peter Kassig, is also shown alive and threatened by the knife-wielding militant.
In Britain, Henning's family paid tribute to the "decent, caring human being" who was a husband and father of two.
Swift offensives by Islamic State since June have sent shockwaves through the region and prompted the United States and its allies to carry out a series of bombing raids to halt the insurgents' rapid advance.
Rami Abdelrahman, who runs the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said several hundred people had been killed on both sides since the assault on Kobani started two weeks ago. British Muslims condemned his killing.
US President Barack Obama denounced the "brutal murder" and vowed decisive action against IS.
Washington is leading a coalition of nations against the jihadist organisation, which has declared an Islamic "caliphate" in parts of Syria and Iraq.
British police are also investigating video footage of an unmasked IS fighter, speaking with a British accent and identified by the SITE monitoring group as Abu Saeed Al Britani, railing against Cameron over British air strikes on Iraq.
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