Turkish-Syrian border (CNN) -- ISIS fighters pounded the Syrian city of Kobani with tanks and heavy artillery Monday as the extremist group came closer to capturing the key city on the border with Turkey.
Should the city fall, it
would give ISIS sway over an uninterrupted swatch of land between the
Turkish border and its self-declared capital in Raqqa, Syria, 100
kilometers (62 miles) away.
Although the fight was
not over, video from Reuters showed what appeared to be the black flag
of ISIS flying over a building on the eastern side of the city Monday.
The Turkish military,
which has bulked up its defenses along the border in recent days as the
fighting has flared, blocked people fleeing the fighting from crossing
the border.
"We want to go across!" would-be refugees chanted as they pressed against a border fence.
The city's defenders vowed to keep fighting.
"We are afraid of this. We are obliged to defend our home, our town," Kurdish Kobani official Idriss Nassan said. "We didn't choose this war, but we are obliged to fight."
Yet, members
of the Kurdish People's Protection Unit, called YPG, and other groups
defending the city couldn't move overnight because of ISIS snipers
equipped with night vision equipment, a fighter inside the city told
CNN.
U.S. and allies strike again
ISIS managed to close in on Kobani despite airstrikes by the United States and allied forces over the weekend.
One attack destroyed two
ISIS tanks, a bulldozer and another ISIS vehicle, U.S. Central Command
said. Two airstrikes hit a large ISIS unit and destroyed six firing
positions, the U.S. military said.
But such attacks aren't enough, Nassan said.
"When I talk to people
here in Kobani, they thank the international community, and the United
States, they thank the countries who are striking the ISIS. But everyone
believes it is not enough," he said.
The "international
community cannot defeat ISIS by just hitting them from the sky. They
have to help the people who are fighting -- the YPG, the (rebel) Free
Syrian Army who are here on the ground."
In other developments over the weekend:
• ISIS gets Pakistani Taliban endorsement
Pakistani Taliban
spokesman Shahidullah Shahid issued a statement backing ISIS, bridging
support from one terror group to another.
"The Muslims of the
world look to you with great expectation and in this difficult time we,
your mujahidin brothers, are with you and will provide you with fighters
and help," the statement said.
• U.S. vice president apologizes
U.S. Vice President Joe
Biden apologized to Turkey and the United Arab Emirates for saying
Middle Eastern allies are partly to blame for the strengthening of ISIS.
At an appearance last
week at Harvard University, he said the militant Islamist group had been
inadvertently strengthened by actions allies took to help opposition
groups fighting against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
"They poured hundreds of
millions of dollars and thousands of tons of weapons into anyone who
would fight against Assad. Except that the people who were being
supplied were al-Nusra and al Qaeda and the extremist elements of
jihadis coming from other parts of the world," Biden said.
On Turkey's alleged
role, he said, "President (Recep Tayyip) Erdogan told me ... 'You were
right. We let too many people (including foreign fighters) through.' Now
they are trying to seal their border."
Erdogan vehemently denied ever saying such a thing.
• Marine may be the campaign's first U.S. casualty
A Marine lost at sea
after bailing out of an MV-22 Osprey when it appeared it might crash in
the Persian Gulf is believed to be the first American military casualty
in support of U.S. operations against ISIS in Iraq and Syria.
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