ALEPPO, Syria
Kurdish groups battling the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, or the ISIL, in the Syrian town of Kobani have taken over a strategically-important hill, a Syrian rebel group said Wednesday.
An official of the Raqqa Revolutionaries Brigade, a Syrian opposition group, said Kurdish fighters now occupied the hill of Tel Shair located in the western part of the town.
The Kurdish fighters also claimed to have seized control of the Izaa region and many villages, the rebel group official told Anadolu Agency.
The capture of the hill, where the ISIL militants had raised their flag only last week, came hours after the US-led coalition warplanes launched airstrikes in Kobani.
The battle for Kobani is far from over as the ISIL continues to control one-third of the town despite the airstrikes.
The town, also known as Ayn al-Arab, has been the scene of fierce battles between the Kurdish groups including the People's Protection Units, or the YPG, and the ISIL since mid-September.
The international coalition has been launching airstrikes on ISIL targets in Syria and Iraq since early August.
Meanwhile, Iraqi troops killed at least 52 ISIL militants around Iraq's largest oil refinery in Salahaddin province’s Baiji area Wednesday, a security official told Anadolu Agency.
Ali al-Qurayshi, an Iraqi colonel responsible for the security of the refinery, said the gun battle had also left one Iraqi soldier dead and five others wounded.
The ISIL militants had stormed and seized the same refinery in June.
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