ISIL suicide bomber detonates near Syria-Turkey border

AMMAN/MÜRŞİTPINAR

Smoke rises from the Syrian town of Kobani, seen from near the Mürşitpınar border crossing on the Turkish-Syrian border in the southeastern town of Suruç in Şanlıurfa province October 13, 2014. REUTERS Photo

A suicide bomber from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) detonated a truck laden with explosives in the northern part of the besieged Kurdish town of Kobane, near the Turkish border crossing with Syria, a monitoring group and Kurdish sources said on Oct. 13.
   
The attack took place about 2 km north of Kobane, which has been the scene of heavy clashes between Kurdish forces and ISIL fighters, who have tightened their grip on the city, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and Kurdish officials said.

The clashes threatened to cut all access from Kobane to the Turkish border and block the passage which which has so far allowed some 200,000 refugees from the Kobane area to find refuge in Turkey.

Clashes with automatic gunfire and mortar fire were taking place an an area less than one kilometre (half a mile) from the barbed wire fence that marks the border between Syria and Turkey, the correspondent on the Turkish side of the border reported.

Doğan News Agency, on the other hand, reported that Kurdish forces fired a rocket on the suicide bomber before the truck hit its target, resulting in the explosion.

Meanwhile the U.S.-led international coalition carried out at least two new air strikes against positions held by militants of the ISIL in and around Kobane.

The first took place a little before 0430 GMT, witnesses said, while the second in the late morning struck at the heart of Kobane and sent a huge plume of smoke into the sky, the correspondent reported.

Turkey has so far not intervened in the battle for Kobane despite building up its military presence on the border. Over the last day, new Turkish tanks and artillery arrived with their weaponry pointing towards Kobane.

U.S. officials said at the weekend that Turkey agreed to let American forces use its air bases for the campaign against the jihadists. But this has yet to be confirmed by Ankara.