The U.S.-led coalition launched seven airstrikes in Syria and three in Iraq on Wednesday against Islamic State militants, the Combined Joint Task Force said in a statement.
In Syria, five of the airstrikes were near Kobani and two were near al Hasakah, the task force said in a statement. Two of the strikes in Iraq hit Islamic State positions near Fallujah and one hit targets near Mosul, the statement said.
Syrian Kurds retake most of Kobani from IS
Kurdish forces have regained control of around 70 percent of Kobani, a Syrian town near the Turkish border, after pushing back IS fighters, a group monitoring the war said Wednesday.
Backed by U.S-led airstrikes, Kurdish forces made significant advances overnight Tuesday after violent clashes with the IS group in the southern part of town, the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
Known as Ayn al-Arab in Arabic, Kobani has become a symbol in the fight between the extremist group and its enemies in Iraq and Syria. Hundreds of IS fighters launched a sustained attack on the town beginning in September.
U.S.-led coalition forces have bombed IS positions around the predominantly Kurdish town almost every day this month.
The Observatory, which gathers information from sources in Syria, said Kurdish fighters now control southern and central parts of the town as well as most of the west in an area stretching up to the border.
Rami Abdulrahman, who runs the Observatory, said Kobani was the only clear example of U.S-led forces cooperating with fighters on the ground in Syria to push back the Islamic State.
"There are airstrikes every day. They have destroyed many Islamic State bases in Kobani. If there had been no airstrikes, then I think Kobani would have been controlled by Islamic State by now," Abdulrahman said. He added that Kurdish forces were close to controlling the entire town.
The United States has said it wants to train and equip "moderate" rebel groups to fight Islamic State on the ground elsewhere in Syria, but rebels say there is much uncertainty surrounding the plans.
