U.S. hits targets around Kobani for humanitarian purposes: Allen

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States is bombing targets in Kobani for humanitarian purposes to relieve defenders of the Syrian town and give them time to organize against Islamic State militants, a senior U.S. official said on Wednesday. "We are striking the targets around Kobani for humanitarian purposes. I'd be very reluctant to attempt to assign ... a term like 'a strategic target,' or 'a strategic outcome,'" retired U.S. General John Allen, the U.S. special envoy for building the coalition against Islamic State, told reporters. "Clearly ... given the circumstances associated with the defense of that town, there was a need for additional fire support to go in to try to relieve the defenders and to buy some white space, ultimately, for the reorganization on the ground," he added. "We have picked up the tempo and the intensity of the air strikes in order to provide that white space." A U.S.-led coalition began bombing Islamic State targets in Iraq in August and extended the campaign to Syria in September in an effort to beat back the Sunni militant group, which has overrun an estimated one-third of Syrian and Iraqi territory. Allen, who is in charge of building the coalition against Islamic State, declined to be drawn on whether Turkey might allow coalition aircraft to use Incirlik Air Base for lethal strikes against the militant group. He was not asked directly whether Syrian Kurds were giving the coalition targeting information for their strikes around Kobani, as Kurdish officials say, but he suggested the United States was open to getting information from anywhere. "Obviously, information comes in from all different sources associated with providing local information or potentially targeting information. And we’ll take it all when it comes in. It’s ultimately evaluated for its value," he said. (Reporting by Arshad Mohammed; Editing by Sandra Maler and Peter Cooney)