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“We asked for three things: one, for a no-fly zone to be created; two, for a secure zone parallel to the region to be declared; and for the moderate opposition in Syria and Iraq to be trained and equipped.”

ISIS fighters pushed farther into Kobani where they engaged in street battles with besieged Kurdish fighters who have been defending the town for three weeks.

After days of fighting outside Kobani, about 2,000 militants entered late Monday, Turkey’s official Anadolu news agency said. Kurdish fighters prevented insurgents from taking control of the town, Ibrahim Kurdo, a local official, said by phone, as warplanes struck militant positions, extending an air campaign that has failed to halt the Islamic State offensive.

“They are now in some neighborhoods in the southeastern side of the town,” Kurdo said from the town today. “Our fighters are steadfast. They know every neighborhood and every building.”

The fall of Kobani, also known as Ayn al-Arab, would extend Islamic State’s grip on territory along Syria’s border with NATO-member Turkey. It would also deliver a major blow to Kurdish autonomy in the region that has deepened as the Syrian government lost control of large swaths of land to rebels during the civil war. Estimates of the number of civilians still in Kobani range from the hundreds to several thousand.

Turkish tanks and other ground forces have been stationed along the border within a few hundred meters of the fighting in Kobani — also known as Ayn Arab — but have not intervened. And neither airstrikes nor the presence of the Turkish army across the border have deterred the Islamic State offensive.