US-led air strikes against Islamic State (Isis) militants continued on Sunday with 12 strikes in Iraq and five in Syria. The strikes followed 22 in Iraq and one in Syria on Friday and Saturday.  Kurdish and Iraqi government forces reported gains against Isis forces achieved with the aid of such strikes.  On Sunday, US Central Command said nine air strikes were made around the strategic Mosul dam and three south-east of Fallujah, hitting a small Isis unit and destroying armed vehicles.  The five strikes in Syria were aimed at targets near the besieged town of Kobani, near the border with Turkey.  “In Syria five air strikes near Kobani destroyed seven [Isis] vehicles and an [Isis] building,” Central Command said in a statement.  The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that the death toll around Kobani had reached 815. That number included 21 Kurdish civilians and 302 fighters with the main Kurdish force, the Peoples Protection Units or YPG. The Observatory said 481 Isis fighters had been killed since the battles began.  Isis fighters launched a wide offensive on Kobani in mid-September, displacing more than 200,000 people. On Saturday, Isis launched an attack on a Kurdish-held neighborhood without succeeding, the Observatory said, adding that seven Isis fighters were killed as well as several YPG fighters.  The Central Command statement added: “Among the coalition nations conducting air strikes in Iraq are the US, France, United Kingdom, Australia, Belgium, Denmark and the Netherlands.  “Coalition nations conducting air strikes in Syria include the US, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Jordan and Bahrain.”  Strikes in Iraq began on 8 August; the first strikes in Syria were carried out on 23 September.
US and European and Middle East allies launch 17 air strikes in Syria and Iraq as Kurdish forces report gains against jihadists