US-led airstrikes target Syria's largest gas field, hit flour mills

US-led airstrikes against the Islamic State extremist group hit Syria's largest gas field and flour mills in areas controlled by the militants, a monitoring group said Monday (29/09/2014).

Several workers were killed in the raid on flour mills near Jarablus on the border with Turkey, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Also hit was the Coneco gas plant near Deir al-Zour in eastern Syria, the pro-opposition watchdog group said. Coneco fuels the Jandar power plant in Homs province, which generates electricity for several provinces in the country.

Syrian military jets carried further strikes on Coneco's gas fields, according to the watchdog.

The Observatory, which has reported that prices of diesel have risen by up to 50 per cent in parts of Syria since coalition forces started targeting the Islamic State's fuel resources, expressed concern at the latest raids.

"Why should these strikes add to the sufferings of the Syrian people? They are supposed to target bases of the Islamic front and not food supply depots, which help the people survive in Syria," Observatory director Rami Abdel-Rahman told dpa.

Analyst Charles Lister of the Brookings Doha Centre wrote on Twitter: "Winter in Syria c.2 months away. Depleted oil resources from strikes give opportunity to West & opposition. If ignored, ISIS will benefit."

Despite the strikes, the Islamic State group was closing in on a Kurdish enclave near the Syrian-Turkish border, with local authorities saying that the militants were a mere 4 kilometres outside the town of Kobane.

The Islamic State group was attacking from all sides backed by artillery, while Kurdish defenders had only light weapons and anti-tank guns, Anwar Muslim, prime minister of the self-declared Kurdish autonomous canton, told dpa.

Mortar shells from the fighting between Kurdish forces and Islamic State militants in northern Syria landed in Turkey, broadcaster CNN Turk reported.

A spokesman for the Kurdish militia defending the area, the People's Protection Units (YPG), said they had repelled two major attacks from the eastern and western approaches, inflicting heavy casualties.

YPG spokesman Redur Xelil said the allied forces should coordinate their strikes with his forces "because we are on the ground and we know the key bases."

He described the humanitarian situation inside Kobane as "very worrying."

"As you know Kobane is under siege from three sides since 10 days, east, west and south. This has made city lack key medical and food supplies and increased the suffering of the residents inside Kobane," Xelil said. - Sapa-dpa