叙重要边境城镇遭伊斯兰国武装强攻

Kurdish officials say Islamic State forces shelled the Syrian border town of Kobani from three fronts Saturday.

The attacks are the latest attempts by militants to take the town, defended by Kurdish forces backed by U.S.-led airstrikes.

An estimated 160,000 people have fled across the border into Turkey to escape the fighting around Kobani; a conflict now said to be overshadowing Syria's wider civil war.

Kobani and its surrounding areas have been under attack since mid-September by Islamic State fighters trying to open a direct link between their positions in the Syrian province of Aleppo and their stronghold of Raqqa, to the east.  The Islamic State group has captured dozens of nearby Kurdish villages.

In another development, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden has apologized to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for comments suggesting Turkey had allowed Islamic fighters to pass through its border into Syria and helped arm militant groups.