Syrian Kurds 'fight back against IS'

8 October 2014 Last updated at 11:45

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Most people believe it is only a matter of time before Kobane falls, says the BBC's Jim Muir

Fighting is continuing around the Syrian border town of Kobane, with reports of Kurdish forces launching an operation against Islamic State (IS).

It follows the US-led coalition's most sustained air strikes so far targeting IS positions in the town.

The UN envoy for Syria has urged the international community to act now to prevent IS from seizing the key town.

Staffan de Mistura told the BBC that the fall of Kobane would be "a massacre and a humanitarian tragedy".

Seizing the entire town would give the IS jihadists full control of a long stretch of the Syrian-Turkish border, which has been a primary route for foreign fighters getting into Syria, as well as allowing IS to traffic oil from oilfields it has captured.

Turkey has come under increasing pressure to do more to help the Kurdish forces fighting in Kobane.

At least 12 people were killed in protests by Kurds in Turkey on Tuesday over the lack of Turkish military support.

Three weeks of fighting over Kobane has cost the lives of 400 people, and forced more than 160,000 Syrians to flee across the border to Turkey.

Battle in the east

Fierce clashes were reported in eastern Kobane on Wednesday, as IS fighters launched an offensive to retake areas it lost control of as a result of coalition air strikes, the head of the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says.

Rami Abdel Rahman, quoted by AFP, said IS had earlier retreated from parts of the eastern and south-western edges of the town and was a no longer present on the western front.

It comes amid reports of a fresh coalition air strike near Kobane on Wednesday, targeting IS positions on an eastern hill.

Until now, IS has besieged the town on three fronts to the south, south-east and south-west.

Late on Tuesday, Kurdish fighters told the BBC's Paul Adams on the Turkey-Syria border that they were launching operations against fighters loyal to IS, who began an assault on the town in September.

Our correspondent says this suggests they feel emboldened a day after witnessing coalition air strikes make a difference for the first time - bringing the IS advance to a juddering halt.

Effective strikes

The leader of the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Unity Party (PYD) said the situation remained very serious, with fighters from its armed wing, the Popular Protection Units (YPG), under intense pressure.

"There is heavy fighting going on by YPG forces and they're trying to defend the civilians," Salih Muslm said. "There is a very large operation against them."

In New York, the UN's special envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, said the Syrian Kurds had defended Kobane with great courage and the international community should now take concrete action to support them.

Syrian Kurdish fighters said Tuesday's coalition strikes - which destroyed several IS armed vehicles and tanks - were the most effective yet, but should have come much earlier.

Meanwhile, a senior US official told the New York Times that "there's growing angst about Turkey dragging its feet to act to prevent a massacre less than a mile from its border".

"After all the fulminating about Syria's humanitarian catastrophe, they're inventing reasons not to act to avoid another catastrophe," the official said.

Last week Turkey's parliament authorised military action against the jihadists in Iraq and Syria, but so far no action has been taken.

What are Turkey's demands and why are they unlikely to be met?

• To set up a buffer zone on the Turkish border inside Syria, enforced by a no-fly zone to ensure security and ease the refugee influx into Turkey - analysts say this is unlikely as it would require warplanes to disable the Syrian government's air defence system
• Air strikes to target the forces of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad - the US state department insists that air strikes are to remain focused on Islamic State alone

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Tuesday that air power alone could not defeat IS: "We had warned the West. We wanted three things: no-fly zone, a secure zone parallel to that, and the training of moderate Syrian rebels."

He said that "the terror will not be over... unless we co-operate for a ground operation", although he gave no further details.

Are you in or near Kobane? Get in contact by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.

Send your pictures and videos to yourpics@bbc.co.uk or text them to 61124 (UK) or +44 7624 800 100 (International). If you have a large file, you can upload here.

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