The Pentagon announced that it is not ignoring the situation around the Syrian city of Kobani, but that there are no plans to send ground forces.
The Pentagon announced today that the US is not ignoring the crisis surrounding the Syrian city of Kobani on the border with Turkey and is doing everything to stop the advance of the Islamic State (ISIL) group from the air, but that only airstrikes cannot save the city, the Associated Press reported.
Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said that there are no plans to send US ground forces, according to the US agency.
According to him, the airstrikes in the area have caused some groups of ISIL extremists trying to take control of Kobani to retreat, but there are different reports on how many extremists retreated.
However, ISIL fighters are making progress in capturing the city of Kobani, according to Reuters.
"Tonight, ISIL fighters entered two districts of the city using heavy weapons, which hit tanks," Asya Abdullah, one of the leaders of the PYD party, who remained to defend that city on the border with Turkey, told Reuters from Kobani.
Another PYD official said that, despite airstrikes by the US-led coalition, ISIL fighters captured some buildings on the eastern outskirts of the city.
Earlier today, the US military said six airstrikes on Tuesday and Wednesday hit a militant group near the Syrian city, Reuters reported, while Italy's ANSA reported a statement from the London-based anti-regime Syrian Observatory for Human Rights that at least 40 were killed today. members of ISIL.
The US military's Central Command in the Middle East (CENTCOM) announced that one armored personnel carrier, armored vehicles and artillery belonging to the extremists were destroyed in the attacks.
The Observatory says that the planes of the US-led coalition hit 20 targets, destroyed five vehicles and forced ISIL members to withdraw from the Kobani area, the Italian news agency reported.
The Islamists of ISIL are attacking that city, one of the major centers of the Kurdish autonomous administration, and dozens of Kurdish villages are under the control of the extremists.
More than 140.000 civilians fled Kobani to neighboring Turkey, and around 1.500 Kurdish volunteers arrived from Turkey, the agencies remind.
ISIL declared a caliphate in the occupied territories of Syria and Iraq, and the US began, with the support of its allies, to bomb the group's positions in Syria on September 23.
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