Turkey opens its bases for US and coalition forces in fight against Isis

İncirlik airbase
As Kurdish defenders held off Islamic State militants in Syria’s border town of Kobani, US defence officials said that Turkey will let US and coalition forces use its bases, including a key installation within 100 miles of the Syrian border, for operations against Islamic State (Isis) militants in Syria and Iraq.

As night fell on Sunday, the town centre was under heavy artillery and mortar fire, Ocalan Iso, deputy head of the Kobani defence council, said by Skype from inside the town. Heavy clashes were under way in the east and south-east, he said, with neither side gaining ground.

Idris Nassan, deputy foreign minister in the Kurdish administration for the Kobani district, said heavy fighting had begun around nightfall in the streets and Kurdish fighters had caught attackers in an ambush.

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