US launches 9 airstrikes against IS positions around Syria’s Kobani

The United States has launched nine more airstrikes against Islamic State (IS) militants sieging the Syrian Kurdish town of Kobani near the Turkish border, razing IS-held buildings and machinery, the US Central Command reported late on Thursday, according to RIA Novosti.

"US military forces continued to attack ISIL terrorists in Syria today using bomber aircraft to conduct nine airstrikes," the Command said in a news release.

The air raid destroyed four IS-occupied houses, a tank, a heavy machine gun, as well as a handful of IS military units.

The Central Command added in its statement that two separate airstrikes targeted insurgents' positions near the Mount of Sinjar in Iraq. The area became a focal point in the widening war in August after thousands of Yazidi Kurds, a minority persecuted by IS, fled their villages in northern Iraq to seek shelter in the mountains.