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Smoke rises over Kobane AP/Press Association Images
kobane
Kurds fight back as Islamic State attempts to take centre of battleground city
Kobane has become the main focus of the battle with the Islamic State.
8.38am, 11 Oct 2014
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KURDISH FIGHTERS THWARTED a bid by Islamic State group jihadists to advance into the centre of the battleground Syrian town of Kobane early today, a monitoring group said.
The attack came after the IS militants overran Kurdish headquarters in the border town on Friday, sparking fears they would cut off the last escape route to neighbouring Turkey for hundreds of mainly elderly civilians still in the town centre.
The IS assault sparked 90 minutes of heavy fighting with the town’s Kurdish defenders before the jihadists fell back, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
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US-led coalition warplanes also carried out two air strikes on IS targets south and east of the town early Saturday, according to the Britain-based monitoring group, which has a wide network of sources inside Syria.
Small groups of Kurdish fighters were trying to harry the encircling jihadists with operations across the front line, Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP.
UN envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura warned Friday that 12,000 or so civilians still in or near Kobane, including 700 mainly elderly people in the town centre, “will most likely be massacred” by IS if the town falls.
Kobane was “literally surrounded” except for one narrow entry and exit point to the Turkish border, de Mistura said.
When people go on about overpaid sports stars being hero’s it makes me sick.
This kid however is the very definition of the word hero.
May he rest in peace for his courage.
This kid is the definition of hero showing such bravery and protecting other lifes and people like him will be miss to the world but I think it’s wrong to say that calling a sports star a ”hero” as sick . Sport stars visiting terminally ill and very sick children in hospitals across the world, you’d be amused at the effect that has ….Obviously not to the same extent but I’d call them a hero
Of course it matters – it highlights his bravery further. You can imagine adults doing it, but a kid brave enough to sacrifice himself like this is almost unimaginable
An Israeli drone circled over the Irish base camp in Lebanon monitoring Simon Harris' visit
Niall O'Connor
Reporting from Lebanon
Updated
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