WASHINGTON - As fighters with the Islamic State bore down Tuesday on the Syrian town of Kobani on the Turkish border, President Obama's plan to fight the militant group without being drawn deeper into the Syrian civil war was coming under acute strain.
New York Times: Turkish inaction on ISIS advance dismays the US
Smoke rises from the city centre of the Syrian town of Ain al-Arab, known as Kobane by the Kurds, as seen from the Turkish-Syrian border during heavy fighting, in the southeastern town of Suruc, Sanliurfa province, on October 7, 2014. Fresh air strikes by the US-led coalition hit positions held by Islamic State jihadists in the southwest of the key Syrian border town of Ain al-Arab (Kobane), according to an AFP journalist just across the border in Turkey. The strikes came a day after the extremists pushed into Kobane, seizing three districts in the city's east after fierce street battles with its Kurdish defenders.
