Ramped-up strikes by US stall IS march

Washington: US-led coalition jets bombed Islamic State targets in Syria on Saturday as the militants stepped up their fight to take the key border city of Kobani from Kurdish defenders.

Suffering heavy losses on the ground in Syria and dodging a hailstorm of US bombs, their reign of terror could now be seriously weakened. The extremists battling in Kobane have still not succeeded in cutting off the Syrian-Turkish border, a vital supply route for Kurdish forces.

The tempo of US-led airstrikes has increased dramatically, with US fighter craft on Friday launching six airstrikes on Islamic State positions near the border enclave, the US military said. A top Kobani city official tells the Associated Press that coalition airstrikes have slowed down Islamic State, but says air power is not enough. He says Kurdish fighters need more weapons and ammunition.

The four-week Islamic State assault has been seen as a test of U.S. President Barack Obama's airstrike strategy, and Kurdish leaders said the town cannot survive without arms and ammunition reaching the defenders, something neighboring Turkey has so far refused to allow.

US war planes struck more than two dozen times in Syria and Iraq, hitting Islamic State jihadists and oil infrastructure they control, the American military said.

The jihadists control a swath of territory straddling northwestern Iraq and eastern Syria, home to most of Syria's main oilfields. Experts say the jihadists were earning as much as $3 million daily from oil before the coalition began launching strikes on Syria, building on the air war under way against IS in Iraq since August 8.