US-led airstrikes hit Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) positions around the Syrian border town of Kobane on Friday in an apparent bid to pave the way for heavily-armed Kurdish peshmerga forces to enter from neighboring Turkey.
The predominantly Kurdish town, besieged for more than 40 days, has become the focus of a global war against the insurgents, who have captured expanses of Iraq and Syria and declared an Islamic "caliphate" straddling the two.
Its fighters have slaughtered or driven away thousands who do not share their ultra-radical brand of Sunni Islam. They executed at least 220 Iraqis in retaliation against opposition to their takeover of territory west of Baghdad this week.