US Airstrikes appear to have helped Kurdish defenders retake some territory in Kobani, the Kurdish city in northern Syria that’s under siege from Islamic State (IS) radicals.  But Turkey’s actions – or lack thereof – just over the border is causing concern.

French President Francois Hollande says Turkey needs to open its border to the immediate north of “the Martyr City” Kobani to allow Kurdish reinforcements from the Turkish side to reach the besieged city and take on IS. 

“Kobane could at any moment fall into the hands of the terrorists,” President Hollande said.  “Turkey must absolutely open its border” to help the Syrian Kurds defending the town which is under attack from Islamic State jihadists.

But Turkish troops remained stagnant at the border, watching the distant fighting.  And Turkish warplanes didn’t just fail to strike Islamic State targets, they repeatedly bombed camps of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in the country’s southeast late – the kinsmen of the Kurds under siege in Syria and Iraq.  It risks reigniting a three-decade conflict that killed 40,000 people before a cease-fire was declared two years ago.

Meanwhile, US airstrikes on the extremists of Islamic State appear to have slowed their advance in Kobani.  The coalition had conducted 21 attacks on the militants on Monday and Tuesday, allowing the Kurdish defenders to retake the strategic Tall Shair Hill that IS occupied 10-days ago.  The Americans also struck at Islamic state across the western border in Iraq, in Anbar Province.

“Coalition air strikes will continue in both of these areas,” US President Barack Obama told military leaders from more than 21 coalition partners at Andrews Air Force Base near Washington, at a, unprecedented meeting of military commanders from 22 countries that have joined the anti-IS coalition.