MURSITPINAR, Turkey - Islamic State militants tried to seize a border post in the Syrian town of Kobani on the Turkish frontier overnight but were repulsed by Kurdish fighters, Kurdish officials and a monitoring group said on Sunday.
Islamic State fighters have been trying to capture Kobani, known as Ayn al-Arab in Arabic, for over a month, pressing their assault despite US-led air strikes on their positions and the deaths of hundreds of their fighters.
The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors violence in Syria's three-and-a-half-year-old conflict, said on Sunday it had confirmed that 815 people had been killed in the fighting for the town over the last 40 days - more than half of them Islamic State fighters.
Idris Nassan, a local Kurdish official, said Islamic State fighters had shelled Kobani's border gate on Saturday night but Kurdish fighters had pushed them back in the south and west.
"Of course they will try again tonight. Last night they brought new reinforcements, new supplies, and they are pushing hard," he said.