High Pole Light coalition forces bombed Islamic State of Iraq and Syria targets in the Syrian city of Kobani at least six times Saturday, the latest in an effort to aid Kurdish forces seeking to take over the area.Saturday's actions followed 59 strikes over the previous four days.Kobani is a key part of a 60-mile stretch of the Turkish/Syrian border that Islamic State militants and Kurdish Peshmerga fighters have battled over in recent months. The airstrikes were intended to help the Kurds fend off the latest Islamic State advance, with some of the battle spilling over the border into Turkey.Once a city of 60,000, Kobani has been turned into a ghost town due to the fighting, with just an estimated 700 residents remaining.While part of the U.S.-led alliance, Turkey has been a reluctant participant due to its long-standing fears that its own Kurds, which amount to 20 percent of its population, might attempt to establish their own breakaway country in the region.The Syrian Kurdish group fighting in Kobani, called YPG, has ties to the Turkish-based Kurdistan Workers' Party, which has espoused creating its own state.According to a Reuters report, Turkey has refused to send arms to the Kurdish fighters in Kobani or allow any fighters through the border. Islamic State militants had hoped that seizing the town would isolate the Syrian Kurds, as well as give it an entry into Turkey.
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