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Airstrikes help ground forces take fight to ISIL - Pentagon

WASHINGTON, Oct 21 (KUNA) -- Kurdish forces are in control of the majority of the Syrian city of Ain Al-Arab (Kobane) despite efforts by the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) to take the city, Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby said Tuesday.
Kirby added in a press conference that the coalition airstrikes in and around the city have been augmented by an airdrop of arms to Kurdish forces, explaning that air force planes dropped 27 of 28 pallets to Kurdish Peshmerga fighters in Kobane.
"We've continued to hit targets in and around Kobane to help the Kurdish forces as they continue to fight against ISIL," nevertheless "its still a very mixed contested environment (as) ISIL forces continue to threaten the city," he said.
He then gave credit to the Kurdish forces that have fought ISIL to a "standstill." Kirby said that ISIL is presenting more targets to coalition aircraft and to Iraqi forces, citing seven airstrikes that were conducted in Iraq yesterday.
He expected more airstrikes will be launched against ISIL in the coming days because "with better weather intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance platforms are able to fly a little bit more now." Kirby assured that Iraqi security forces are advancing with the support of airstrikes in Fallujah, at the Mosul Dam complex and mostly in Baiji which is a location of an important oil refinery. All "three are areas ISIL wants to take and hold and that in all those areas, Iraqi security forces are contesting the group.
"Their advances over the last few days have been slowed by the weather which is clearing, and so they are moving again, but it also has been slowed by almost 30 IEDs (improvised explosive devices) that they found and cleared" Kirby said.
"They are taking the fight to the enemy and those strikes last night are indications that we are trying to support them too" he ended. (pickup previous) yt.bs