LATEST: Reports — Regime Threatening Last Main Route to Insurgents in Aleppo

The Islamic State’s offensive in northern Syria pressed closer to the Kurdish center of Kobane on Thursday, with some reports putting the jihadists within one mile of the town.

In its two-week campaign, the Islamic State has advanced on Kobane from the west, south, and east, taking scores of villages and prompting the flight of at least 130,000 civilians across the border to Turkey.

Earlier this week, Kurdish forces checked the jihadist offensive, holding lines about 10 kilometers (six miles) from Kobane. However, the Islamic State’s heavy weaponry and reported use of suicide bombings has worn down the resistance.

On Thursday, jihadists pushed back the Kurdish fighters to the west and southeast of Kobane, which is the center of one of three Syrian Kurdish cantons. They are regularly shelling the town center.

After days of appeals from Kurdish officials, the US-led coalition carried out some aerial missions against Islamic State positions — there were at least five strikes reported on Thursday — but the isolated destruction of jihadist equipment has had little impact.

Kurdish fighters trying to hold off the Islamic State forces:

Footage of Chechen fighters of the Islamic State outside Kobane:

Islamic State forces on the outskirts of the town:

Reports: Regime Threatening Last Main Route to Insurgents in Aleppo

Residents and activists said the Syrian army is threatening to cut the last main supply route to insurgents in Aleppo.

Regime forces fought insurgents near Handarat on the northern edge of Syria’s main city, divided since July 2012, on Friday.

“The road is completely closed and the regime has erected barriers,” said opposition activist Muhammad Bidour. “Our comrades were there and had to take another very long road which takes hours.”

Bidour said clashes were ongoing in the villages of Sifat and Dowir al-Zeitoun, around eight kilometres (5 miles) north of Aleppo.

Foreign Ministry Calls on UN To Condemn Double Bombing in Homs

The Foreign Ministry has called on the UN to condemn Wednesday’s double bombing near a school in Homs, which killed 33 people and wounded 102.

The Ministry sent identical letters to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon and the hHead of the UN Security Council: “All the indications that have been compiled so far confirm that the masterminds and perpetrators of this crime are affiliated to terrorist organizations that some Western countries and their pawns in the region like to call ‘moderate opposition’.”

No one has claimed responsibility for the car bomb, followed by a suicide bomber who detonated his explosives.

Opposition activists have questioned the regime’s narrative that insurgents are the culprits. They have noted that the car carrying the bomb had Syrian military plates and passed through checkpoints before it was parked near the school.

State news agency SANA headlined the funeral processions for some of the children who died in the blasts. It did not mention protests calling for the resignation of Homs Governor Talal al-Barazi.