Fresh Airstrikes In Northeast Syria Kill 19, Including 5 Civilians, Human Rights Monitor Says

Update as of 5:45 a.m. EDT: Kurdish forces near the besieged Syrian border town of Kobane, also known as Ayn al-Arab, have reportedly halted the advance of fighters of the Islamic State group, according to media reports.

Kurdish fighters, collaborating with some Free Syrian Army rebels, are pushing ISIS militants back near the eastern side of town in an attempt to regain lost territory, according to an Al Jazeera report.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that eight Kurdish fighters and 12 militants of the Islamic State group were killed in overnight clashes in the region, located near the Turkish border. Meanwhile, nearly 150,000 Kurds have fled across the border to Turkey since fighting in Kobane began last week.

At least 19 people, including 14 militants of the Islamic State group, were killed in overnight airstrikes in northeast Syria on Thursday, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights -- a watchdog group monitoring the conflict.

Five civilians, including a child, were also reportedly killed in the United States-led airstrikes, which targeted villages under the control of the Islamic State group, formerly known as ISIS, near the city of Deir al-Zour, about 280 miles northeast of the Syrian capital of Damascus.

The attacks on the Sunni extremist group’s strongholds in the northeast come just a few hours after airstrikes late on Wednesday, which targeted oil refineries controlled by the Sunni extremist group near the cities of al-Mayadeen, al-Hasakah and Albu Kamal in eastern Syria.

More than 130 fighters of the Islamic State group and Khorasan -- a shadowy group of al Qaeda fighters allegedly based in Syria's Aleppo province -- have so far been killed in the airstrikes in the country, according to media reports.