IS militants are zeroing in on the Syrian town of Ain al-Arab, known as Kobani by the Kurds, opposition sources say.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which opposes the Syrian government, said on Sunday that the militants seized part of a strategic hill overlooking the southern entrance to the besieged Kurdish town on Syria’s border with Turkey late on Saturday.
The southern side of Mishte Nur hill was captured after violent clashes between the IS terrorists and the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) and other forces, who maintain control of the hill’s northern side.
If the militants capture the hilltop “the whole town of Kobani will be in their sights and it will be easier to take,” the Britain-based group added.
The reported advance came despite intense air raids by the US-led coalition on IS positions around the strategic town.
Kurdish media outlets said coalition warplanes targeted the IS militants on the southern side of Mishte Nur and in the nearby village of Halanj as well as Mazraa Dawud, a few kilometers east of Kobani along the Turkish border.
The nearly three-week intense battle for the strategic town of Kobani has forced about 200,000 of people to take refuge in Turkey.
The IS controls large areas of Syria’s east and north. The group sent its militants into Iraq in June, seizing large parts of land straddling the border between Syria and Iraq.
They have carried out heinous crimes in the two countries, including mass executions and beheadings of people.
