US coalition launches new ISIS strikes

American-led coalition forces on Saturday launched new strikes against the Syrian town of Kobani to target the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), according to multiple reports.

The besieged town along the Syrian-Turkish border has been under heavy fire for a month, as ISIS militants have been battling Kurdish and U.S.-backed forces.

{mosads}Reuters reported on Saturday that jets bombed at least two ISIS targets in the town, in response to ISIS shelling in the city center. The shelling continued after the jet strikes, Reuters said. 

On Friday, Army Gen. Lloyd Austin, the head of the U.S. Central Command, told reporters that it was “highly possible” the town could fall to the Islamic insurgents.

The military’s focus is still on Iraq, Austin said, not Syria.

“Iraq is our main effort, and it has to be. And the things that we’re doing right now in Syria are being done primarily to shape the conditions in Iraq,” he said.

ISIS forces continue to mass in and around Kobani, a city of about 60,000 residents that has reportedly shrunk to fewer than 700 people as thousands had fled the violence.