MURSITPINAR, Turkey — The U.S.-led coalition intensified its aerial bombardment of Islamic State positions Thursday in the Syrian border town of Kobane as the extremist group fought street battles with Kurdish forces and reportedly rushed in reinforcements.
The battle for the town near the frontier with Turkey has emerged as a major test for the air campaign aimed at rolling back and eventually destroying the extremist group.
It has also strained ties between Washington and Ankara over the long-term U.S. strategy in Syria. On Thursday, the U.S. special envoy for the coalition, retired Marine Gen. John Allen, and NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg were in Turkey to press the country to join military operations.
Turkish officials have said that although they do not want Kobane to fall, they will not take on a greater role until the coalition outlines a broader strategy that includes attacking Syrian President Bashar Assad, who is best positioned to benefit from any rollback of the Islamic State group.
But attacking Assad’s regime “is not the focus of our international coalition and not the focus of our efforts by the United States,” said State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki.
Turkey also has called for the creation of a buffer zone inside Syria to secure the border. The White House and Pentagon said Wednesday that the U.S. is not considering that option. Such a zone would be costly and complex to enforce.
U.S. officials said Thursday that the U.S. is largely talking to Turkey about other things it could do besides inserting ground forces into the fight: allowing U.S. and coalition aircraft to fly over Turkish territory; allowing its air base in Incirlik, about 100 miles from the Syrian border, to be used by U.S. or coalition planes or for logistics and training; and equipping moderate Syrian opposition forces fighting to topple Assad.
The officials were not authorized to discuss meetings underway between U.S. and Turkish officials in Ankara and requested anonymity.
Kurds have held massive demonstrations across Turkey in which they accuse the government, which has deployed its tanks just across the frontier, of doing nothing to save Kobane.
Turkey is suspicious of the Syrian Kurdish forces fighting in Kobane, seeing them as an extension of the Kurdish PKK, which waged a long and bloody insurgency against Turkey.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said it was unrealistic to expect Turkey to launch a ground war against the Islamic State group on its own.
Cavusoglu spoke at a news conference in Ankara with NATO’s Stoltenberg, who said there was no easy solution for Kobane.
“ISIL poses a grave threat to the Iraqi people, to the Syrian people, to the wider region, and to NATO nations,” Stoltenberg said. “So it is important that the whole international community stays united in this long-term effort.”
Secretary of State John Kerry and Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu have spoken at least twice this week.
In Kobane, columns of smoke rose as warplanes buzzed overhead Thursday. Two explosions — apparently from an airstrike — echoed from the edge of the town.
Gunfire and blasts could be heard on the Turkish side, where people watched the fighting unfold from a stretch of farmland.
The U.S. Central Command said five airstrikes south of Kobane since Wednesday had destroyed an Islamic State group support building and two vehicles, and damaged a training camp. The strikes also hit two groups of Islamic State fighters, it said in a statement.
The Islamic State fighters have captured a police station in the east of Kobane, said the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
The Observatory said the militants had seized more than a third of Kobani, but Kurdish officials disputed that, saying their forces had recaptured several parts of the town.
