US Allies Stage 15 Air Strikes On ISIL In Iraq, Syria

US military forces again focused air strikes on the area near the Syrian city of Kobani in their campaign to turn back Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militants and also hit oil facilities held by the militant group, the US Central Command said on Thursday.

A total of 15 strikes were staged against ISIL in Iraq and Syria on Wednesday and Thursday, according to a statement from Central Command.

The statement said US fighter and bomber aircraft staged four strikes near the key border city of Kobani, destroying an ISIL control center and fighting positions in an area that has often been targeted this month, and two more that knocked out oil tanks east of Dawr az-Zawr.

Four air strikes by US and allied forces in Iraq near the vital Mosul Dam hit small ISIL units and destroyed a vehicle, while another attack near Bayji took out a fighting position. Four strikes in the Fallujah area targeted a training facility, a larger ISIL unit and a building.

In the meantime, Syrian Kurdish factions have signed a deal to share power and set their rivalries aside to capitalize on growing international support for their fight against ISIL militants.

The agreement was reached late on Wednesday after nine days of talks and coincided with a decision by Iraqi Kurdistan to send its own peshmerga forces to relieve their fellow Kurds in Kobani.

The planned deployment marks the semi-autonomous region's first military foray into Syria's war and is also part of a surge in support for the Kurds, whom the US have been helping with airdrops and strikes.

Turkey had previously stated that it would not support any kind of weapons transfers to the Kurdish fighters, who are allied with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), in Kobani. The Democratic Union Party (PYD), the Syrian branch of the PKK, has been fighting against ISIL militants in the Syrian town of Kobani near the Turkish border. The PKK is classified as a terrorist organization by the US, Turkey and the European Union.

(Cihan/Today's Zaman)