Battles rage for control of the Syrian border town of Kobani.
The radical al Qaeda offshoot Islamic State has been battling for more than two weeks to seize the predominantly Kurdish town, driving 180,000 people into neighboring Turkey.
Outgunned Kurdish fighters vowed Monday not to abandon their increasingly desperate efforts to defend the town as militants are pressing in from three sides and pounding them with heavy artillery.
Air strikes by American and Gulf state warplanes have so far failed to halt the advance of the Islamists, who moved to the outskirts of the town over the weekend and were battling to secure a strategic hilltop in the face of fierce resistance.
Kobani's Kurds have so far received little help from elsewhere. Turkey has given shelter to the bulk of the area's refugees, and its doctors have treated the wounded. But Turkey has sent no signals that it would join the fight.
Beheadings, mass killings and torture have spread fear of the gr
