Kurds Advance Against IsIS in Syria, Iraq

Kurdish fighters advanced on the Islamic State extremist group in Iraq and Syria on Saturday, pushing into the contested, refugee-packed Sinjar mountains and gaining ground in the embattled Syrian border town of Kobane after heavy clashes, Kurdish officials and an activist group said. In Syria, Kurdish Democratic Union Party spokesman Nawaf Khalil said Kurdish fighters advanced in six neighborhoods and have besieged the IS-held cultural center east of Kobane. He added that Kurdish fighters captured the Yarmouk school, southeast of Kobane where eight bodies of IS fighters were found.