IS press gains in Syria, Iraq

MURSITPINAR, Oct 15 (agencies): Jihadists pushed to seize Syria's Kobane and an Iraqi town close to Baghdad on Wednesday as Washington warned of a long fight against the steadily advancing Islamic State group.

In the town of Kobane on the Turkish border, the jihadists have been holding out in fighting with Kurdish militia despite stepped-up US-led air strikes, and calls have been growing for Turkey to take action.

In Iraq, IS militants were closing on the town of Amriyat al-Fallujah, one of the last still controlled by the government in the troubled Anbar province and only 35 kilometres (20 miles) from Baghdad.

With US military officials warning that IS had the "tactical momentum", President Barack Obama told Western and Arab allies fighting IS that they are facing a "long-term campaign".

"There are not quick fixes involved. We're still at the early stages," Obama said in Washington after meeting senior commanders from more than 20 allies involved in the campaign.

"As with any military effort, there will be days of progress and there are going to be periods of setback," he added.

Obama expressed special concern for Kobane, which has become a crucial symbolic battleground in the fight against IS, and about halting the IS advance in Iraq's western Anbar province.

Fighting continued to rage for Kobane early Wednesday, with clashes concentrated in the east of the town where IS fighters established a stronghold after piercing its defences last week.

An AFP reporter across the border in Turkey reported at least four fresh US-led air strikes early Wednesday, after the coalition said it had hit the jihadists in Kobane with 21 raids on Monday and Tuesday alone.

A monitoring group said overnight fighting had concentrated on the former Kurdish military headquarters in northern Kobane which IS seized on Friday.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said four coalition strikes had hit IS positions during the night, including at the headquarters.

Turkey has stationed troops, tanks and artillery along the border-in some cases only a few hundred yards from the fighting-but has not intervened.

NATO member Turkey also has yet to allow US jets to mount attacks from its territory and complicated issues Tuesday by bombing Kurdish rebel targets in the southeast of the country.

In Iraq, security forces warned late Tuesday their last position in Anbar province at the town of Amriyat al-Fallujah was under heavy pressure from the jihadists.

But the loss of Anbar, where government forces have suffered a string of bruising military setbacks in recent weeks, would be a heavy blow to Iraqi ground forces battling IS.

Meanwhile: American-led forces have sharply intensified air strikes in the past two days against Islamic State fighters threatening Kurds on Syria's Turkish border after the jihadists' advance began to destabilize Turkey.

The coalition had conducted 21 attacks on the militants near the Syrian Kurdish town of Kobani over Monday and Tuesday and appeared to have slowed Islamic State advances there, the U.S. military said, but cautioned the situation remained fluid.

US President Barack Obama voiced deep concern on Tuesday about the situation in Kobani as well as in Iraq's Anbar province, which US troops fought to secure during the Iraq war and is now at risk of being seized by Islamic State militants.

The fight against Islamic State will be among the items on the agenda when Obama holds a video conference on Wednesday with British, French, German and Italian leaders, the White House said.

War on the militants in Syria is threatening to unravel a delicate peace in neighboring Turkey where Kurds are furious with Ankara over its refusal to help protect their kin in Syria.

The plight of the Syrian Kurds in Kobani provoked riots among Turkey's 15 million Kurds last week in which at least 35 people were killed.

Turkish warplanes were reported to have attacked Kurdish rebel targets in southeast Turkey after the army said it had been attacked by the banned PKK Kurdish militant group, risking reigniting a three-decade conflict that killed 40,000 people before a ceasefire was declared two years ago.