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US-led Forces Launch 10 Airstrikes in Syria, Iraq


FILE - After Islamic State extremists swept into Kobani in mid-September, Kurdish fighters and U.S.-led airstrikes fought to reclaim it. The Syrian town bears battle scars, as shown Nov. 19, 2014.
FILE - After Islamic State extremists swept into Kobani in mid-September, Kurdish fighters and U.S.-led airstrikes fought to reclaim it. The Syrian town bears battle scars, as shown Nov. 19, 2014.

The U.S.-led coalition launched seven airstrikes in Syria and three in Iraq on Wednesday against Islamic State militants, the Combined Joint Task Force said in a statement.

In Syria, five of the airstrikes were near Kobani and two were near al Hasakah, the task force said in a statement. Two of the strikes in Iraq hit Islamic State positions near Fallujah and one hit targets near Mosul, the statement said.

Syrian Kurds retake most of Kobani from IS

Kurdish forces have regained control of around 70 percent of Kobani, a Syrian town near the Turkish border, after pushing back IS fighters, a group monitoring the war said Wednesday.

Backed by U.S-led airstrikes, Kurdish forces made significant advances overnight Tuesday after violent clashes with the IS group in the southern part of town, the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Known as Ayn al-Arab in Arabic, Kobani has become a symbol in the fight between the extremist group and its enemies in Iraq and Syria. Hundreds of IS fighters launched a sustained attack on the town beginning in September.

U.S.-led coalition forces have bombed IS positions around the predominantly Kurdish town almost every day this month.

FILE - Kurdish fighter Pervin Kobani rides in the back of a pickup truck through Kobani, Syria. Female fighters have been integral to the war efforts.
FILE - Kurdish fighter Pervin Kobani rides in the back of a pickup truck through Kobani, Syria. Female fighters have been integral to the war efforts.

The Observatory, which gathers information from sources in Syria, said Kurdish fighters now control southern and central parts of the town as well as most of the west in an area stretching up to the border.

Rami Abdulrahman, who runs the Observatory, said Kobani was the only clear example of U.S-led forces cooperating with fighters on the ground in Syria to push back the Islamic State.

"There are airstrikes every day. They have destroyed many Islamic State bases in Kobani. If there had been no airstrikes, then I think Kobani would have been controlled by Islamic State by now," Abdulrahman said. He added that Kurdish forces were close to controlling the entire town.

The United States has said it wants to train and equip "moderate" rebel groups to fight Islamic State on the ground elsewhere in Syria, but rebels say there is much uncertainty surrounding the plans.

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    Reuters

    Reuters is a news agency founded in 1851 and owned by the Thomson Reuters Corporation based in Toronto, Canada. One of the world's largest wire services, it provides financial news as well as international coverage in over 16 languages to more than 1000 newspapers and 750 broadcasters around the globe.

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