The so-called Islamic State has made advances on areas near the Syrian border with Turkey, despite airstrikes against the militants by a U.S.-led coalition.
According to reports late on Tuesday, the terrorists have come within two kilometers of the major Syrian border town of Ain al-Arab situated in the northern province of Aleppo. The town is also known as Kobane to the Kurds.
The IS terrorists have had the strategic Syrian town under siege during the past several days.
The recent advances have brought the group to the closest distance from the besieged town.
There are also reports that the militants have surrounded the tomb of Suleyman Shah, the grandfather of the founder of the Ottoman Empire, Osman the First. The militants have taken hostage 20 Turkish soldiers who were guarding the tomb, which lies to the east of the northern Syrian city of Aleppo near the Turkish border.
Ankara regards the tomb of Suleyman Shah as sovereign Turkish territory under a treaty signed with France in 1921.
IS has captured nearly 60 Kurdish villages around the city of Kobane in Aleppo’s countryside, located in northwestern Syria.
Islamic State's advances come despite the U.S.-led airstrikes on the group’s positions in Syria.
Since September 22, the U.S. and its allies, including Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Jordan, have been conducting air strikes against IS inside Syria without any authorization from Damascus or a UN mandate.
The air strikes are an extension of the U.S.-led aerial campaign against IS positions in Iraq.
This is while Washington has been supporting the militants operating against the government in Syria since March 2011. Many IS terrorists have reportedly received training by the CIA in Jordan and Turkey. Saudi Arabia and Qatar have been also staunch supporters of militants fighting the Syrian government.
