BREAKING NEWS

Monitor: Syria Kurds control 70 percent of besieged Kobani

BEIRUT - Kurdish forces have regained control of around 70 percent of the Syrian town of Kobani near the Turkish border after pushing back Islamic State fighters that have spent months besieging it, a group monitoring the war said on Wednesday.
Backed by US-led air strikes, Kurdish forces made significant advances overnight on Tuesday after violent clashes with Islamic State in the south of the town, the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
Known as Ayn al-Arab in Arabic, the town has became a symbol in the fight between the ultra hardline Islamic State group and its enemies in Iraq and Syria. Hundreds of Islamic State fighters launched a sustained attack on the town more than three months ago.
US-led forces have bombed Islamic State positions around the predominantly Kurdish town almost every day this month.