ISIL pushes into Kobane, sending Syrian Kurds fleeing for safety

Fighters from Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), backed by tanks and artillery, advanced into the southwest of the Syrian-Kurdish town of Kobane overnight, a monitoring group said Tuesday, as street-to-street fighting raged and the town's Kurdish defenders ordered all civilians to flee. Two black ISIL flags were seen flying on Kobane's eastern side on Monday, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an anti-Assad monitoring group with a network of activists across Syria. Hours after the insurgents raised the flags they punctured the Kurdish front lines and advanced into the town itself. But later Monday night, Kurdish forces rebounded and were able to push ISIL back slightly on the eastern front, the Observatory said. "They're fighting inside the city. Hundreds of civilians have left," said Observatory director Rami Abdurrahman. The center of the town was still in Kurdish hands, Abdurrahman said, but Mustafa Bali, a spokesman for Kurdish forces, told Agence France-Presse that all civilians were told to leave immediately. "Military officials asked civilians to evacuate. They declared Kobane a military area," he said.   Agencies