Jihadi fighters using weapons brought from Iraq capture Kurdish areas in northern Syria

BEIRUT – Activists say jihadi fighters using weapons they recently captured in neighboring Iraq are battling to take predominantly Kurdish areas in northern Syria.

Kurdish official Nawaf Khalil says members of the Islamic State group are trying to capture an area near the Turkish border to link with their positions east of the country.

He and other activists say Thursday's fighting is concentrating in the region of Kobani, also known as Ayn Arab.

Mustafa Osso, a Turkey-based Kurdish activist who has wide contacts in northern Syria. says the aim of the offensive is to take the entire Kobani area.

Osso says those standing against the Islamic State group are mostly members of the People's Protection Units, the armed wing of the Kurdish Democratic Union Party.