Kurdish defenders held off Islamic State militants in Syria’s border town of Kobane on Sunday, but the fighters struck with deadly bombings in Iraq, killing dozens of Kurds in the north and assassinating a provincial police commander in the west. The top US military officer suggested that Washington, which has ruled out joining ground combat in either Iraq or Syria, could nevertheless increase its role ‘advising and assisting’ Iraqi troops on the ground in future. A US-led military coalition has been bombing Islamic State fighters who hold swathes of territory in both Iraq and Syria, countries involved in complex multi-sided civil wars in which nearly every country in the Middle East has a stake. In Syria, the main focus in recent days has been on the mainly Kurdish town of Kobane, where Kurdish defenders have been trying to halt an advance by fighters.