US air strikes obliterate Islamic State position - video

Dramatic video has emerged showing the moment US air strikes halted an Islamic State advance on a symbolically significant position near the Syrian town of Kobane.

On Thursday evening an AFP news agency photographer captured the moment when an air strike hit the IS position at the top of the hill that lies to the west of the town.

Tel Shair overlooks the predominantly Kurdish town of Kobane from the Syrian side of the Turkish border. The hill has seen fierce fighting between IS militants and the Kurdish militia, the YPG, for weeks.

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The position was taken by IS two weeks ago, before the YPG moved in to take it back on 14 October after a series of US-led air strikes, the Daily Telegraph reports.

Yesterday morning, IS retook the position with a swift push, and planted their black flag at the top of the hill, in clear sight of towns across the Turkish border.

In the early evening, however, allied air strikes targeted the hill. A succession of bombs rained down, engulfing the few militiamen who had been left manning the post in a huge fireball.

This morning it was unclear who controlled Tel Shair. Analysts say that whoever has access to the hill stands a better chance of controlling Kobane itself. If IS were to take Kobane it would give them full control of a large stretch of the border with Turkey, the BBC says.

The allied aerial campaign, which began last month, has reportedly killed 553 people, AFP reports. All but 32 of them were believed to have been jihadists, many of whom came from overseas, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.