Fighters advance in Syria despite US-led air raids

DAMASCUS: US planes pounded Islamic State positions in Syria for a second day on Wednesday, but the strikes did not halt the fighters’ advance in a Kurdish area where fleeing refugees told of villages burned and captives beheaded. Syrian Kurds said Islamic State had responded to US attacks by intensifying its assault near the Turkish border in northern Syria, where 140,000 civilians have fled in recent days in the fastest exodus of the three-year civil war. The intensifying advance on the northern town of Kobani showed the difficulty Washington faces in defeating fighters in Syria, where it lacks strong military allies on the ground. “Those airstrikes are not important. We need soldiers on the ground,” said Hamed, a refugee who fled into Turkey from the Islamic State advance. Mazlum Bergaden, a teacher from Kobani who crossed the border with his family, said two of his brothers had been taken captive by Islamic State fighters.   REUTERS