Originally posted by the Voice of America. Voice of America content is produced by the Voice of America, a United States federal government-sponsored entity, and is in the public domain. Kurdish Forces in Iraq Make Advances Against IS Fighters by VOA News Kurdish fighters in Iraq launched a series of attacks against Islamic State militant positions Tuesday, bolstered by U.S.-led coalition airstrikes and Iraqi military support. An Iraqi Kurdish political source told Reuters that Kurdish peshmerga fighters took control of the Rabia border crossing with Syria in a battle that began before dawn. The ability to cross the frontier freely has been a major tactical advantage for Islamic State fighters on both sides. Fighters swept from Syria into northern Iraq in June and returned with heavy weapons seized from fleeing Iraqi government troops, which they have used to expand their territory in Syria. US-led airstrikes U.S.-led forces have been bombing Islamic State targets in Iraq since August and expanded the campaign to Syria last week in an effort to defeat the fighters who have swept through Sunni areas of both countries, killing prisoners, chasing out Kurds and ordering Shi'ites and non-Muslims to convert or die. In Iraq, a coalition of Iraqi army, Shi'ite militia fighters and Kurdish troops known as peshmerga have been slowly recapturing Sunni villages that had been under the Islamic State group's control south of the Kurdish-held oil city of Kirkuk. ''"At dawn today, two villages near Daquq, 40 kilometers south of Kirkuk, Peshmerga forces liberated them from Islamic State [militants]," an Iraqi security official told Reuters. Islamic State fighters had used positions in the villages to fire mortars at neighboring Daquq, a town populated mainly by ethnic Turkmen Shi'ite Muslims. When Kurdish fighters entered the villages, they were empty, the security official told Reuters. Forces were also pushing north from the city of Tuz Khurmatu to drive Islamic State fighters out of the countryside that surrounds Kirkuk, the official said. He credited U.S.-led airstrikes with helping the peshmerga clear the two villages. "This area witnessed intense airstrikes from U.S.-led strikes and Iraqi air strikes overnight and at dawn," the official told Reuters. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said coalition airstrikes also hit Islamic State fighters east and west of Kobani, the newest flashpoint in the battle to push back the extremist group, on Tuesday. The Local Coordination Committees, another activist group, also confirmed the airstrikes on the town's outskirts, according to The Associated Press. The offensive follows a successful campaign a day earlier to recapture towns in Diyala province from the militants. Fight for Kobani continues In Syria, Kurdish militiamen continue to defend the border town of Kobani, also known by its Arabic name of Ain al-Arab, on the Turkish border. It was not immediately clear how effective Tuesday's airstrikes were in slowing the Islamic militants' advance. Over the past few days, the extremists have pushed to within five kilometers (three miles) of Kobani and have begun hitting it with mortars and artillery shells. Just outside Kobani, Islamic State militants captured the deserted Kurdish village of Siftek on Tuesday and appeared to be using it as a headquarters from which to launch attacks on Kobani itself. But Ocalan Iso, deputy commander of the Kurdish forces defending the town, told Reuters that Kurdish troops had battled Islamic State fighters armed with tanks through the night and into Tuesday. On the ground, fighting Tuesday focused around Kobani's eastern edge, said Ahmad Sheikho, an activist operating along the Syria-Turkey border. He said that members of the local Kurdish militia destroyed two tanks belonging to the Islamic State group. The frontier town of Kobani and surrounding villages have been under attack by the Islamic State group since mid-September. The fighting has forced some 150,000 Kurds to flee to Turkey in what has been one of the largest single exoduses in Syria's civil war, now in its fourth year. Turkey mulls action Meanwhile, the Turkish parliament is considering legislation that would authorize military action against the Islamic State group, and a vote is expected Thursday. The opposition does not support such action, and it is not clear what form any Turkish military intervention would take. Turkey, a NATO member with a long border with Syria, has so far declined to take a frontline role, fearful partly that the military action will strengthen President Bashar al-Assad and bolster the Syrian Kurdish militants allied to the outlawed PKK in Turkey who have fought for three decades for more autonomy. US costs With the United States now conducting what it says are "near continuous" strikes in both Iraq and Syria, a Washington-based think-tank, speaking with the French news agency AFP, warned that the costs of the campaign to the U.S. taxpayer could swiftly escalate. U.S. aircraft have flown roughly 4,100 sorties in the air war against the jihadists in Iraq and Syria since August, including surveillance flights, refuelling runs and bombing raids, a military officer said Monday. The [1]Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments estimated that when U.S. airstrikes against the Islamic State group in Syria got under way last week, Washington had already spent as much as $930 million (735 million euros) on the campaign against Islamic State fighters. If airstrikes continue at a moderate level, the cost will run at between $200 million and $320 million a month, but if they are conducted at a higher pace, the monthly cost could rise to as much as $570 million,[2] the think tank projected. Some materials for this report came from Reuters, AFP and AP. __________________________________________________________________ [3]http://www.voanews.com/content/kurds-iraq-syria-islamic-state-group- peshmerga/2467463.html References 1. http://www.csbaonline.org/ 2. http://www.csbaonline.org/publications/2014/09/analysis-of-the-fy2015-defense-budget/ 3. http://www.voanews.com/content/kurds-iraq-syria-islamic-state-group-peshmerga/2467463.html