'We either win or die': Kurds fight desperate battle against Islamic State for Kobane

Suruc, Turkey: Islamic State militants raised their flag on a building on the eastern outskirts of the Syrian border town of Kobane on Monday after an assault of almost three weeks, but the town's Kurdish defenders said they had not reached the city centre.

A black flag belonging to Islamic State was visible from across the Turkish border atop a four-storey building close to the scene of some of the most intense clashes in recent days.

Desperate battle ... smoke rises from the Syrian town of Kobane as Kurdish forces defend it from Islamic State militants.Credit: AFP

Local sources inside Kobani confirmed the group had planted its flag but said that Kurdish forces had repelled their advances so far.

"ISIL have only planted a flag on one building on the eastern side of town," said Ismail Eskin, a journalist in the town. "That is not inside the city, it's on the eastern side. They are not inside the city. Intense clashes are continuing."

Smoke rises from the Syrian town of Ain al-Arab, known as Kobane by the Kurds, as Islamic State jihadists push to take the town.Credit: AFP

The radical al-Qaeda offshoot has been battling to seize the predominantly Kurdish town after taking over large swathes of territory in Syria and Iraq in recent months.

Air strikes by American and Gulf state warplanes have failed to halt the advance of the Islamists, who have besieged the town from three sides and pounded it with heavy artillery.

"During the day sometimes IS makes advances but YPG pushes them back. There are clashes within the vicinity, but they are not inside the city, YPG is resisting," said Pawer Mohammed Ali, a translator for the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) inside Kobane.

Mortars have rained down on residential areas in Kobane and stray fire has hit Turkish territory in recent days, but Kurdish pleas for help have so far largely gone unanswered.

An Islamic State (IS) flag (top) flutters on the roof of a building in the Syrian town of Kobane.Credit: AFP

Islamic State wants to take Kobani to consolidate a dramatic sweep across northern Iraq and Syria, in the name of an absolutist version of Sunni Islam, that has sent shockwaves through the Middle East.

Beheadings, mass killings and torture have spread fear of the group across the region, with villages emptying at the approach of pick-up trucks flying Islamic State's black flag.

Turkish tanks line up on a hill outside the village of Mursitpinar next to the Syrian town Kobane.Credit: AFP

"If they enter Kobane, it will be a graveyard for us and for them. We will not let them enter Kobane as long as we live," Esmat al-Sheikh, head of the Kobani Defence Authority, said by telephone earlier on Monday.

"We either win or die. We will resist to the end," he added as heavy weapons fire echoed from the eastern side of town.

Kurdish militia have fought off a fresh assault by the Islamic State group on Kobane, after one desperate woman defender carried out a suicide attack against the jihadists.

IS militants attempted to storm the town on the Turkish border from both east and west of a strategic hill to the south, but Kurdish fighters repulsed the attack, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Monday.

A Syrian Kurdish official inside Kobane said the town had come under heavy bombardment by the jihadists and there had been fierce clashes as the Kurdish fighters fought off the assault.

IS fighters seized part of Mishtenur Hill, which overlooks Kobane, late on Saturday, but US-led air strikes slowed their advance.

The Syrian Kurdish official, Idris Nahsen, said IS fighters were just one kilometre from the town and that air strikes alone were not enough to stop them.

In a sign of the Kurdish defenders' mounting desperation, a female suicide bomber blew herself up at an IS position east of Kobane on Sunday, the Observatory said.

It was the first reported instance of a female Kurdish fighter employing a tactic often used by the jihadists, said the Britain-based watchdog, which has a wide network of sources inside Syria.

The bomber, in her 20s, was a full-time fighter with the People's Protection Units (YPG), a Syrian Kurdish rebel group, which - like its ally in Turkey the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party - has a large number of women under arms.

The group identified her as Dilar Gencxemis, alias Arin Mirkan, from the Kurdish-controlled town of Afrin in northwestern Syria.

"She killed dozens of gang members and demonstrated the YPG fighters' determined resistance," it said in a statement carried by the pro-Kurdish Firat news agency.

"If necessary, all YPG fighters will follow her example, and the gangs will not be allowed to achieve their aim of taking Kobane," it added.

Sunday's fighting around Kobane - also known as Ain al-Arab - killed at least 19 Kurdish fighters and 27 IS jihadists, the Observatory said.

Under assault by IS for nearly three weeks, the town has become a crucial battleground in the international fight against the jihadists, who sparked further outrage at the weekend with the release of a video showing the beheading of Briton Alan Henning.

AFP