ISIL attack on Syrian border town Kobane stalls amid US air assault

A bid by Islamic State fighters to seize the flashpoint Syrian border town of Kobane has stalled, American officials said, with the help of air strikes reported to have killed over 500 jihadists.

U.S. and allied aircraft have flown nearly 6,600 sorties in the air war against the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group and dropped more than 1,700 bombs, the American military said Oct. 23.

The latest tally was released one month since the U.S.-led coalition extended its air campaign from Iraq into Syria in a bid to counter the advance of the jihadists.

The effect of the open-ended air campaign remains the subject of debate, with the White House saying the militants have been damaged by the strikes but critics pointing to the group's battlefield successes despite the raids.       

In Washington, Pentagon chief Chuck Hagel acknowledged "mixed" results in the war effort but said: "We believe that our strategy is working."       

ISIL, which declared in June a "caliphate" over territory it seized in Iraq and Syria, was meanwhile described as the world's wealthiest "terror" group, earning $1 million a day from black market oil sales alone.
     
The Kurds in Kobane, which has become a crucial battlefield for both the ISIL jihadists and their opponents, have been holding out for more than a month, buoyed by a promise of Iraqi Kurd reinforcements and by U.S. air drops of weapons.

"I think the Kurdish defenders... are going to be able to hold," a defense official at U.S. Central Command said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Kurds say their fighters are exhausted and anxious for promised reinforcements from Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region.

Lawmakers there agreed Wednesday to send...