Kobane: IS fighters targeted by new air strikes

The US-led coalition has carried out more air strikes to try to repel Islamic State (IS) militants attacking the Syria-Turkey border town of Kobane. The BBC's Paul Adams heard three raids in 30 minutes - and eight in total - on Tuesday, in support of Syrian Kurds. However, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned air strikes were not enough and Kobane was "about to fall". At least 400 people have died in three weeks of fighting for Kobane, monitors say, and 160,000 Syrians have fled. If IS captures Kobane, its jihadists will control a long stretch of the Syrian-Turkish border. Separately, a Kurdish demonstrator has been killed in clashes with Turkish police in the town of Varto, news agencies say, as Kurds widen their protests against what they view as Turkey's inaction over Kobane. 

EvacuationThe latest media release from the US military confirmed five air strikes around Kobane, saying they were on Monday and Tuesday, but without specifying exactly when. It said the attacks had destroyed four IS armed vehicles and an "IS unit", and damaged one IS tank and one armoured vehicle.

However, our correspondent says more air strikes could be heard on Tuesday afternoon, bringing the total to eight since 04:00 local time (02:00 GMT) - by far the most sustained coalition action in the area.

He says that as a result, fighting in the city has died down considerably - it was quiet but for occasional crackles of gunfire in the afternoon.

UK-based monitoring group the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said IS had crossed into a southern district of Kobane, after heavy fighting on Monday evening had forced it to pull back from eastern districts.

The town is now besieged on three sides. A humanitarian mission to evacuate the few thousand civilians left in Kobane continued on Tuesday.

Mr Erdogan said on a visit to a refugee camp for Syrians: "The problem of [IS] cannot be solved via air bombardment. Right now, Kobane is about to fall.

"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.

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