US-led air strikes in Syria were reported Thursday to have killed more than 500 jihadists in a month, as Kurdish fighters prepared to reinforce the embattled border town of Kobane.
Fierce clashes were reported in several parts of Kobane early Thursday, with heavy gun and mortar fire.
The town’s Kurdish defenders have been holding out against an assault by the Islamic State (IS) militant group 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 Thursday that 200 Iraqi Kurd peshmerga fighters would travel through Turkey to join the battle in Kobane, where about 1,000 IS militants are believed to be fighting.
Fighter jets were again heard flying over Kobane on Thursday, a month after the US-led coalition expanded its aerial campaign against IS in Iraq to Syria.
The air strikes have killed 553 people since their launch, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, including 464 IS fighters and 57 militants from al Qaeda affiliate, al Nusra Front.
Thirty-two civilians have also been killed, including six children and five women, said the Britain-based Observatory, which relies on a wide network of sources inside Syria.
The US military said Thursday that IS fighting positions, a vehicle and a jihadist command and control centre were destroyed in the latest coalition raids near Kobane.
In Iraq, airstrikes hit IS targets including a large “unit” and a training centre.