US-Led Strikes Push IS Fighters Out of Kobane, but Kill Kurds

Air strikes carried out by the US-led coalition have successfully driven Sunni insurgents from Islamic State (IS) from most of Kobane, a town in the north of Syria.

There are prospects that the town could be liberated soon, since there are only two pockets of resistance in the Kobane's east, sources from the Kurdish fighter's command in Kobane told the BBC.

However, the Pentagon is still concerned, with spokesman John Kirby warning it could still fall to IS.

Weather conditions have impeded the coalition to carry out the strikes in a more efficient way over the past hours, but Kirby believes the international forces will have a better edge when they improve.

About 50 strikes have been launched on Kobane within 48 hours, an unprecedented number of bombings ever since the raids on the town started in September.

IS controls large chunks of land in both Syria and Iraq and has recently made new gains in Iraq's Anbar province near the common border.

However, recent bombing on Kobane might have taken an unexpected turn, as reports in Kurdish media quoted by German weekly Der Spiegel suggest an air strike killed at least six civilian Kurds there.

The magazine wrote on its website that, according to the news website Rudaw and to Kurdish militia defending Kobane, elderly Kurdish women were hiding in a building that was bombed as the coalition was targeting jihadists who had also sought shelter there.

More than 662 people have been killed since Kobane was first threatened by IS in September.