MURSITPINAR: US-led air strikes in Syria were reported on Thursday to have killed more than 500 militants in a month, as Kurdish fighters readied to reinforce the embattled border town of Kobani.

A correspondent across the frontier in Turkey reported fierce clashes and fresh air raids in Kobani, with heavy gun and mortar fire rocking its western side in the evening.

The Islamic State (IS) group, which on June 29 declared a “caliphate” over territory it seized in Iraq and Syria, was on Thursday described as the world’s wealthiest “terrorist” group, earning $1 million a day from oil sales alone.

The battle for Kobani has become crucial for both IS and its opponents, with a senior US official this week saying that the Kurds there were inflicting heavy losses on the militant group.

The Kurds have been holding out against IS militants for more than a month, buoyed in recent days by a promise of Iraqi Kurd reinforcements and by US air drops of weapons.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Thursday that 200 Iraqi Kurd peshmerga fighters would travel through his country to join the battle in Kobani, where IS has an estimated 1,000 militants. Warplanes were again heard flying over Kobani and at least three air strikes were carried out on Thursday, a month after the US-led coalition expanded its air campaign against IS in Iraq to Syria.

The air strikes killed 553 people since their launch, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, including 464 IS fighters and 57 militants from the Al Qaeda-affiliated Al-Nusra Front.

Thirty-two civilians were also killed, including six children and five women, said the Britain-based Obser­vatory.

After first focussing on Iraq, the US-led coalition has dramatically expanded its strikes in Syria recently, including in Kobani.

The US military said in its latest update that fresh coalition raids near the town destroyed IS fighting positions, a vehicle and a militant command and control centre.

Published in Dawn, October 24th, 2014