BEIRUT (AP) - U.S.-led coalition airstrikes targeted fighters, vehicles and artillery pieces of the Islamic State group on both sides of the Syria-Iraq frontier Tuesday, including around a beleaguered Kurdish town near the Syrian-Turkish border that is under assault by the militants, activists said.
The aerial campaign, which began last week in Syria and last month in Iraq, aims to destroy the extremist faction known as the Islamic State, which has seized control of a huge chunk of territory stretching from northern Syria to the western outskirts of the Iraqi capital.
Despite the coalition airstrikes, the militants have pressed their offensive on the town of Kobani, also known by its Arabic name Ayn Arab, and surrounding villages near Syria's border with Turkey. The fighting has created one of the single largest exoduses in Syria's civil war, now in its fourth year: More than 160,000 fled the area into Turkey over the past few days, the U.N. humanitarian chief Valerie Amos said.
"Their fear is so great that many people crossed heavily mined fields to seek refuge," she told the U.N. Security Council.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Tuesday's strikes hit Islamic State fighters east and west of Kobani. The Local Coordination Committees, another activist group, also confirmed the airstrikes on the town's outskirts. Both groups attributed the strikes to the U.S.-led coalition.
The U.S. Central Command said U.S. fighter jets and drones conducted 11 airstrikes Monday and Tuesday in Syria, including three near the Syrian-Turkish border that destroyed one artillery piece, damaged another and knocked out two rocket launchers. It said another strike northeast of Aleppo destroyed four buildings occupied by Islamic State militants. Two strikes destroyed vehicles, artillery and a tank in eastern Syria and near the Iraq border.
Kurds and militants battled Tuesday on Kobani's eastern edge, said Ahmad Sheikho, an activist operating along the border. He said members of the local Kurdish militia destroyed two tanks belonging to the Islamic State group. Militants have been hitting the town with mortars and artillery shells. A day earlier, fighting around Kobani killed 57 fighters, including both Kurds and militants, according to the Observatory.
The situation in Kobani was "very difficult," said Nawaf Khalil, a spokesman for Syria's leading Kurdish Democratic Union Party, or PYD.
Just outside Kobani, Islamic State militants captured the deserted Kurdish village of Siftek on Tuesday and appeared to be using it as a headquarters from which to launch attacks on Kobani itself.
The fighting could be seen from a hilltop on the Turkish side of border, in the Karacabey area. From there, spectators - mostly Turkish Kurds - watched the fighting, some using binoculars and cheering on their Syrian Kurdish brethren.
"Long live YPG, long live Apo," shouted one woman, referring to Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan, whose group has fought Turkey for Kurdish autonomy. Apo is a Kurdish nickname for Abdullah.
The U.S. said its aircraft conducted seven strikes in northwest Iraq, destroying seven Islamic State vehicles and damaging one. Four more strikes hit militant vehicles and fighting positions near the Mosul Dam as well as outside Baghdad.