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Alan Minbic, a fighter with the Kurdish People's Protection Unit, or YPG, told CNN that ISIS now controls the southwest corner of the city, known in Arabic as Ayn al-Arab.
Thousands of civilians have fled the predominantly Kurdish city in northern Syria in recent days as ISIS forces have advanced apparently inexorably toward it.
The Sunni extremist group's advance into the city comes a day after Turkish lawmakers voted overwhelmingly to authorize military force against ISIS in Iraq and Syria.---
Australia's Cabinet on
Friday became the latest nation to join the U.S.-led coalition against
ISIS in Iraq, as it authorized airstrikes by Australian military jets
and the use of its special forces.
For months, ISIS has been
advancing, capturing portions of northern and eastern Syria and western
and northern Iraq for what it says is its new Islamic state, or
caliphate.
The fighting has only
intensified in the region in recent days, with ISIS nearly surrounding
Kobani, not far from Turkey's border, as of Thursday. Remaining
civilians were ordered to evacuate and headed to the border, as Kurdish
fighters declared their readiness to take on the ISIS militants in
street warfare.
YPG fighters are now using snipers in an effort to prevent the ISIS militants from advancing farther, Minbic said.
On the eastern edge of
Kobani, city defenders destroyed an ISIS tank, Minbic said, but on the
western side, ISIS now controls an area called Tal Shair, which includes
an informal border crossing.
Mousa Al Ahmad, a Free
Syrian Army fighter in Kobani, gave CNN the same information on the ISIS
advance, in a separate phone conversation.
If ISIS, also known as
ISIL or "Islamic State," takes Kobani, it will control a complete swath
of land from its self-declared capital of Raqqa, Syria, on the Euphrates
River to the Turkish border, more than 100 kilometers (60 miles) away.
U.S. airstrikes have
been directed against ISIS positions in the Kobani area this week. But
U.S. Central Command said there were no further strikes in the area
overnight into Friday.
Big shift for Turkey
The mood of Turkey's
leaders changed in recent days, with ISIS on the nation's doorstep and
tens of thousands of people fleeing across its border.
The Turkish Parliament
voted 298-98 to not only to let the country's military leave its borders
to go after ISIS and other terror groups, but also to allow foreign
troops to launch operations from Turkey.
The authorization, which came as ISIS fighters laid siege to towns just south of the Turkish border, takes effect Saturday.
It is a big shift for
Turkey, a NATO member, which until now offered only tacit support to the
U.S.-led coalition of about 40 nations going after ISIS in Iraq and
Syria in various capacities.
The Prime Minister submitted a motion declaring that Turkey was seriously threatened by the chaos in Syria and Iraq.
One Kurdish fighter, who gave only his first name, Botan, told CNN on Thursday that they were not afraid to die if necessary.
"We know what will
happen if ISIS takes over our town and what they will do to us," he
said. "Our fight is not just for the Kurds, it is a fight for all of
humanity. When people are getting their heads chopped off and tossed
aside like animals, it is a duty to fight."
Special forces
Australian Prime
Minister Tony Abbott, speaking at a joint news conference with defense
chiefs Friday, said ISIS had "effectively declared war on the world" and
posed a threat to Australia and its people.
ISIS must be disrupted
and degraded, he said, and "it is absolutely in Australia's national
interests that this mission go ahead."
The Cabinet authorized
the deployment of Australian special forces into Iraq to "advise and
assist" Iraqi forces, Abbott said, subject to final legal approvals from
Iraq. Australian aircraft began flying support missions over Iraq this
week.
Abbott warned that the
deployment to Iraq could be "quite lengthy," lasting months rather than
weeks, but that it would be no longer than strictly necessary.
"Yes, it is a combat
deployment, but it is an essentially humanitarian mission to protect the
people of Iraq and ultimately the people of Australia from the
murderous rage of the ISIL death cult," he said.
Abbott said Australia's special forces would support Iraqi forces, in a way similar to those sent by the United States.
"The Americans certainly
have quite a substantial special forces component on the ground
already," he said. "My understanding is that there are UK and Canadian
special forces already inside Iraq. So we'll be operating on a much
smaller scale but in an entirely comparable way to the United States
special forces."
Australia has six Super
Hornet strike fighters based in the United Arab Emirates, and Parliament
has authorized the use of up to eight, said Air Chief Marshal Mark
Binskin.
Australian authorities
believe that there are at least 60 Australians fighting in the Middle
East with terrorist groups, chiefly ISIS, and that at least 100 more
support terrorist groups through funding and recruitment.
Counterterrorism police have carried out raids in Australia in recent
days.
