AKIPRESS.COM - The US-led coalition has carried out its most sustained air attacks so far on Islamic State fighters attacking the Turkey-Syria border town of Kobane, reports BBC.

Syrian Kurdish fighters said the strikes were the most effective yet but should have come much earlier.

Correspondents said the surge of IS appeared to have been halted, although fighting around Kobane continues.

At least 12 people were killed in protests by Kurds in Turkey about the lack of Turkish military support.

Kurdish Syrian Party leader Salih Muslim said the situation overnight remained very serious with the Kurdish fighters of the YPG militia under intense pressure.

"There is heavy fighting going on by YPG forces and they're trying to defend the civilians," he said.

"There is a very large operation against them."

At least 400 people have died in three weeks of fighting for Kobane, monitors say, and 160,000 Syrians have fled across the border to Turkey.