(Transcript from SBS World News Radio)
Islamic State fighters appear to have penetrated parts of the key Syrian border town of Kobane amid reports of street fighting and explosions.
A London-based monitor group says urban guerilla warfare is now raging in the town's eastern districts and it is unclear how long Kurdish forces can hold out.
Darren Mara reports.
(Click on the audio tab above to hear the full report)
Gunfire and explosions on the streets of Kobane.
The Syrian border town has been under siege from IS for three weeks, and Kurdish forces are now facing the militants on three fronts.
Amateur video posted on a social media website purports to show an IS flag, visible from across the Turkish border, raised in a nearby village.
The video cannot be independently verified, but, if authentic, it shows just how close the fight with IS, also known as ISIS or ISIL, is to Turkey.
US-led forces have been conducting air strikes on the militants' positions in the area to try to slow their advance.
But the strikes have not been able to seriously disrupt their assault on Kobane.
Kurdish soldiers, like this man speaking to Al Jazeera, have promised to continue fighting the militants.
(Translated)"We're not terrorists. We're fighting our killers. We're defending ourselves. We reject sectarianism that is being represented only by the regime. Down with Bashar Al-Assad."
Local sources inside Kobane say Kurdish forces still control the town's centre, although, earlier, a local official in Kobane told the BBC the town would certainly fall soon.
Turkey has promised not to let Kobane fall but is yet to act on that beyond sending tanks to its side of the border.
Turkey and the Kurds have historically had a deeply uneasy relationship, Turkey fearing the Kurds in the country's east want an independent state with the Kurds across its borders.
But Turkey's Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu says his country will not abandon its neighbours.
"We will do everything possible to help the people of Kobane, because they are our brothers and sisters. We don't see them as Kurds or Turkmen or Arabs. If there is a need for intervention in Kobane, we are saying that there is a need for intervention in all Syria, all of our border."
NATO is also threatening IS with action if Turkey requires protection.
If Kobane falls, the militants would gain control over a long stretch of the Syria-Turkey border, in addition to swathes of Syria and neighbouring Iraq.
NATO's new Secretary General, Jens Stoltenberg, says the Western alliance stands ready to step in.
"The main responsibility for NATO is to protect all allied counties. Turkey is a NATO ally, and our main responsibility is to protect the integrity, the borders, of Turkey. And that is the reason why we have deployed Patriot missiles in Turkey to enhance, to strengthen, the air defence of Turkey. And Turkey should know that NATO will be there if there is any spill over, any attacks on Turkey, as a consequence of the violence we see in Syria."
But it is unclear what benefit the NATO pledge will be to the people of Kobane.
Kurdish fighters have ordered the last remaining citizens to flee the town.
Their best hopes lie across the border in Turkey in refugee camps.
More than 180,000 Syrians, mainly Kurds, have fled the siege of Kobane.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Tony Abbott says Australia is finalising the legal documentation to deploy special forces to join the fight against IS in Iraq.
"We've written to the Iraqis. The Iraqis have written back to us. And we now need to consider their response to finalise our considerations. And, as I said, our forces are ready to go, because it is absolutely imperative for the world that we disrupt and degrade the operations of ISIL, which is an assault not just on a country but on civilisation."
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