联合国：科巴尼一旦陷落，大屠杀恐难避免

Heavy fighting has been reported for yet another day in and around the Syrian city of Kobani along the Turkish border.

Dark plumes of smoke could be seen rising above the city Sunday as Kurdish fighters battled to defend the city from the continuing onslaught by Islamic State extremists.

U.S.-led coalition warplanes have been pounding targets in and around Kobani.

U.N. officials in the region have warned that as many as 12,000 Kurds, including hundreds of elderly people in the city's center, "will most likely be massacred" if Kobani falls.  The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says IS extremists controlled 40 percent of the town by early Saturday.  

The Turkish government has so far refused to join the battle, citing ties between Kobani's Kurdish defenders and the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party.  The PKK has waged a decades-long rebellion for self-rule in southeastern Turkey and has been designated a terrorist organization by Ankara and Washington.