Kurds In Kobani Repulse Islamic State Attack On Border Gate

MURSITPINAR, Turkey, Oct 26 (Reuters) - Islamic State militants tried to seize a border post in the Syrian town of Kobani on the Turkish frontier overnight but were repulsed by Kurdish fighters, Kurdish officials and a monitoring group said on Sunday.

Islamic State fighters have been trying to capture Kobani, known as Ayn al-Arab in Arabic, for over a month, pressing their assault despite U.S.-led air strikes on their positions and the deaths of hundreds of their fighters.

The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors violence in Syria's three-and-a-half-year-old conflict, said on Sunday it had confirmed that 815 people had been killed in the fighting for the town over the last 40 days - more than half of them Islamic State fighters.

Idris Nassan, a local Kurdish official, said Islamic State fighters had shelled Kobani's border gate on Saturday night but Kurdish fighters had pushed them back in the south and west.

"Of course they will try again tonight. Last night they brought new reinforcements, new supplies, and they are pushing hard," he said.

To lose the border gate -- the only official way for the Kurdish fighters in Kobani to cross into Turkey -- would be a major blow to the fighters defending the town as well as the civilians who still remain.

Iraqi Kurdish "peshmerga" fighters are expected to arrive to reinforce the fighters in Kobani, who are mostly members of the Syrian Kurdish YPG armed group, but it is unclear when.

The Observatory said it had confirmed that 302 YPG fighters had so far been killed in the fighting for Kobani so far, as well as 481 Islamic State fighters, 10 fighters from other groups, 21 civilians, and one volunteer bringing ammunition to YPG fighters. (Reporting by Dasha Afanasieva; Writing by Alexander Dziadosz; Editing by Kevin Liffey)