Lefteris Pitarakis

Intensified U.S.-led airstrikes and a determined Kurdish military force on the ground appear to have had some success in halting advances by Islamic State fighters on a strategic Kurdish town near Syria’s border with Turkey — at least for now.

Bolstered by intensified U.S.-led coalition airstrikes targeting militants from the Islamic State group, Kurdish militiamen fought pitched street battles Wednesday with the extremists in a Syrian Kurdish border town near Turkey, making small advances, activists and officials said.

The U.S.-led coalition ramped up its aerial bombardment of Islamic State positions in the Syrian border town of Kobani on Thursday as the extremist group battled street by street with Kurdish forces and reportedly rushed in reinforcements from surrounding areas.

New U.S.-led airstrikes near the Syrian border town of Kobani have helped Kurdish fighters push back the Islamic State group a day after it appeared on the verge of seizing the town, the fate of which has emerged as a key test of whether coalition air power can roll back the extremist group.