Airstrikes try to stop ISIL march on key Syrian town
Coalition aircraft pummeled militant targets near a strategic town on the Turkish-Syrian border where Kurdish forces were desperately attempting to hold out against an Islamic State offensive.
The U.S.- led coalition launched at least five airstrikes around Kobani, targeting armed vehicles, a tank and fighters, the U.S. Central Command said Tuesday.
It's not clear whether the airstrikes over the past two days would repel the militants, who appeared to be making headway in parts of the city. Photos showed the militants raising their black flag on the outskirts of the city.
"Kobani is about to fall," Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Tuesday.
Erdogan said airstrikes alone would not halt the Islamic State and called for coordination with the Syrian opposition.
The battle for Kobani appears to be part of the Islamic State's strategy to seize a stretch of Syrian towns along the border with Turkey. If militants capture the city, it would help consolidate their control over Kurdish areas that have been difficult to secure and give them access to cross into Turkey.
Capturing Kobani despite the coalition bombing also could provide the militants an important psychological victory. The battle highlights the limits of an air campaign alone to target the militants, who have taken over large swaths of Iraq and Syria.
In Iraq, U.S. advisers are coordinating with aircraft that are supporting Iraq's armed forces. In Syria, the United States has no advisers on the ground, and the military is not coordinating with rebel forces combating the Islamic State, also known as ISIL or ISIS.
President Obama has said he does not want American combat troops fighting on Syrian or Iraqi soil.
The lack of close coordination with ground forces limits the effectiveness of the air campaign, said Jennifer Cafarella, an analyst at the Institute for the Study of War.
The Pentagon noted the militants have changed tactics since the start of the air campaign, dispersing their forces so they are less susceptible to airstrikes.
If Islamic State fighters enter the city and engage in close combat with Kurdish forces, then launching airstrikes becomes problematic because of the increased danger of friendly or civilian casualties.
"It makes it very difficult when the forces are in close combat," said Jeff White, an analyst at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and a former Defense Intelligence Agency official.
He said there are a number of Islamic State targets outside the city, including troop concentrations, tanks and armed vehicles, which could be destroyed by airstrikes. So far the air campaign has been scattered over a wide area. "It has not not been concentrated to achieve a significant military effect," he said.
Turkey has expressed support for the U.S.-led effort to combat the Islamic State, and its parliament last week approved the use of force in Syria.
Still, the country has been reluctant to provide military support. One reason: The forces defending Kobani from the Islamic State siege are Kurdish, and Turkey has been battling a Kurdish insurgency for independence inside its borders.
The fighting on the border has caused a huge refugee crisis for Turkey, where about 160,000 Syrians have sought refuge. Hundreds more civilians fled Kobani on Monday as the militants advanced, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
The observatory said the militants captured several buildings on the southern edge of Kobani, as well as a hospital under construction on the western side.
Contributing: The Associated Press