Call comes after renewed Isis drive sparks 90 minutes of heavy fighting with town’s Kurdish defenders before jihadis fall back

This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

Kurdish forces defending the embattled Syrian border town of Kobani urged the US-led coalition to escalate air strikes on Islamic State (Isis) fighters as the militants tightened their grip on the town on Saturday.

A Kurdish military official said that Isis had brought more tanks and artillery to the frontlines, while street-to-street fighting was making it harder for jets to target the militants’ positions.

“We have a problem, which is the war between houses,” said Esmat al-Sheikh, head of the Kobani defence council.

“The air strikes are benefiting us, but Islamic State is bringing tanks and artillery from the east. We didn’t see them with tanks, but yesterday we saw T-57 tanks,” he added.

The US said it carried out six air strikes on Isis militants near Kobani on Friday and Saturday, while US and Dutch planes launched three strikes on targets in Iraq near Tal Afar and Hit.

The aerial attacks, which were cheered by refugees on the Turkish side of the border, have helped to delay the advance of Isis by destroying some of their largest guns.

“We are getting stronger,” said Anwar Muslim, a lawyer and head of the city council who stayed on in Kobani after most officials left. “What we wanted from the beginning was to get rid of the heavy weapons so we can fight honestly. They tried everything to get inside [Kurdish-controlled areas], but for now they are still outside.”

A group that monitors the Syrian civil war said the Kurdish forces faced inevitable defeat in Kobani if Turkey did not open its border to let through arms - something Ankara has so far appeared reluctant to do.

“[Islamic State] is getting supplies and men, while Turkey is preventing Kobani from getting ammunition. Even with the resistance, if things stay like this, the Kurdish forces will be like a car without fuel,” said Rami Abdelrahman, who runs the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Earlier on Saturday, Kurdish fighters held back a push by Isis towards the heart of Kobani.

The pre-dawn attack came after Isis militants overran the Kurdish headquarters in the border town on Friday, sparking fears they would cut off the last escape route to neighbouring Turkey.

The renewed Isis drive on the centre of Kobani sparked 90 minutes of heavy fighting with the town’s Kurdish defenders before the jihadis fell back, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The UN envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, has warned that about 12,000 civilians still living in or near Kobani, including about 700 mainly elderly people in the town centre, “will most likely be massacred” by Isis if the town falls.

Kobani was “literally surrounded” except for one narrow entry and exit point to the Turkish border, and De Mistura called on Turkey to support the coalition’s actions. Ankara has been deeply reluctant to allow weapons or Kurdish fighters to cross the border.

However, US officials warned that while world attention is focused on Kobani, Isis has been piling pressure on government troops in neighbouring Iraq, leaving the army in a “fragile” position in Anbar province between Baghdad and the Syrian border.

US defence officials said that the main focus of the coalition’s campaign is Iraq, where there are capable local forces on the ground. However, officials voiced concern about the “tenuous” position of Iraqi troops in Anbar province, where the few remaining government-controlled areas have come under repeated attack.

Some of Anbar province fell to Isis at the start of the year and most of the rest was seized by the Sunni extremists in a lightning sweep through Iraq’s Sunni Arab heartland in June.

The area was the main battleground for the Sunni insurgency that erupted after the US-led invasion of 2003.

Meanwhile, a television journalist in Iraq’s Salahuddin province has been killed by Isis.

Raad al-Azzawi, who was a cameraman for Iraq’s Salahuddin network, was reportedly killed by militants on Friday in Tikrit.

The militant group has beheaded a number of journalists in Syria in what it says is retaliation for US-led coalition air strikes.

Reporters Without Borders said last month that the militants had threatened to execute Azzawi, a father of three, for refusing to join Isis. He was abducted on 7 September.