Kurdish diehard fighters entrenched in the besieged northern Syrian town of Ain Al-Arab (Kobane) continued resisting assaults by Muslim militants bent on capturing the key town, situated close to the Syrian-Kurdish border line, according to a monitor.
In an apparent bid to obstruct advance by forces of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant toward remaining positions of the Kurdish fighters in and near the town, military aircraft of the international-Arab coalition raided groups of the gunmen on the town eastern and southern outskirts, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
On the ground, fierce clashes raged between the ISIL militants and forces of the People's Protection Units (YPG), the military wing of the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD), in eastern sector of the town where the ISIL gunmen made a new push toward the Kurds' defenses. In the eastern parts, the Kurdish fighters carried out several military operations, triggering fierce clashes with the militants.
The ISIL militants, during today's action, set off a booby-trapped vehicle near the so-called "security zone," as the warring militias battled around the Grand Mosque, the Syrian monitoring group said, indicating that the ISIL fighters were seeking to occupy the mosque and use its minaret, which overlooks much of the town, for sniping.
The militants started their advance toward Ain Al-Arab on September 16, prompting thousands of Kurdish natives to flee the town to nearby Turkey, with vows by armed Kurdish groups to put up a stiff fight against the incoming warriors and foil their advance.
Elsewhere, 14 Syrians were wounded in violence in central Syria as fighting continued between opposition forces and troops of the Syrian regime. In Deir El-Zor in eastern Syria, 10 ISIl gunmen were killed in an assault on a checkpoint manned by the hardline militiamen.
Fighting was also reported in Aleppo's rural areas and other contested regions across the Syrian theatre of military operations.