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ByLefterisPitarakis The Associated Press MURSITPINAR, TURKEY Intensified U.S.-led air- strikes and a determined Kurdish military force on the ground appear to have had some success in halt- ing advances by Islamic State fighters on a strate- gic Kurdish town near Syr- ia's border with Turkey — at least for now. On Wednesday, the Kurdish militiamen were fighting ferocious street battles with the Sunni ex- tremists in Kobani and making advances on some fronts, hours after the U.S.- led coalition stepped up its aerial campaign. In a surprising display of resilience, the Kurd- ish fighters have held out against the more experi- enced jihadists a month into the militants' offen- sive on the frontier town, hanging on to their terri- tory against all expecta- tions. "People underestimate the power of determina- tion," said Farhad Shami, a Kurdish activist in Ko- bani. "The Kurds have a cause and are prepared to die fighting for it." They also have the ad- vantage of fighting on fa- miliar ground. "Islamic State fight- ers have far more supe- rior weapons, but they lack knowledge of the terrain," said Rami Abdurrahman, director of the Britain- based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Kurdish fighters, on the other hand, know "every street, building and corner" of Kobani and have the pow- erful "will of resistance," he said. Some of them are ex- perienced fighters who have fought alongside rebels of the affiliated PKK in Turkey as they battled for autonomy for Kurds during a three-de- cade insurgency. The Islamic State group launched its offensive on Kobani in mid-September, capturing dozens of nearby Kurdish villages and a third of the town in lightning ad- vances that sent massive waves of civilians fleeing into Turkey. Days later, the U.S. and its allies began bombing Is- lamic State targets in Syria, but the strikes were slow to take off in Kobani and ap- peared largely ineffective. Expectations were that the town would fall to the mil- itants within days. The Kurdish fighters, however, have put up a for- midable fight, despite feel- ing a deep sense of abandon- ment by an international community they believe has failed to come to their rescue as it did with their brethren and other minori- ties in Iraq threatened by Is- lamic State militants. The fighting in and around Kobani has killed more than 550 people, the majority of them Islamic State fighter, according to the Observatory. Abdurrahman and other Syria observers say the Kurds have shown much more tenacity and resilience than other Syrian rebel fac- tions who ended up making "tactical retreats" or simply fled jihadi onslaughts in other areas of Syria. Equally important in the past few days has been more concentrated air- strikes by the U.S.-led coali- tion in and around Kobani targeting Islamic State in- frastructure and positions. The U.S. military says it launched 39 airstrikes near Kobani in the past 48 hours, designed to disrupt Islamic State reinforcements and resupply, and to prevent the extremist group's fight- ers from massing combat power on the Kurdish-held sections of Kobani. Plumes of smoke rising from the strikes were vis- ible across the border in Turkey. Capitalizing on those strikes, fighters of the Kurdish People's Protec- tion Units, or YPG, made some progress against the militants Wednesday, said Asya Abdullah, a Syrian Kurdish leader. Speaking by telephone from Kobani, Abdullah, the co-president of Syria's pow- erful Kurdish Democratic Union Party, or PYD, told The Associated Press the Kurdish fighters had ad- vanced near the hill of Tel Shair that overlooks part of the town. Turkey's state-run An- adolu Agency said the Kurd- ish forces planted two flags on the hill after retaking it from theIslamicState group and removing the black flag the extremists had hoisted earlier in the week. The U.S. and its allies also struck oil facilities to try to cut off smuggling by the extremists, hurting the group's income in both Iraq and Syria. The Paris-based Interna- tional Energy agency said in a report that the coali- tion airstrikes have signif- icantly weakened the Is- lamic State group's ability to produce and smuggle oil, a major source of income for the militants. US-LED AIRSTRIKES Ku rd s ho ld t he ir o wn fi gh ti ng ag ai ns t mi li ta nt s in S yr ia LEFTERISPITARAKIS—THEASSOCIATEDPRESS People gather on a hilltop on the outskirts of Suruc, at the Turkey-Syria border, to watch fighting between Syrian Kurds and the militants of Islamic State group in Kobani, Syria. THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a conference on education, in Penza, Russia on Wednesday. By Vladimir Isachenkov The Associated Press MOSCOW Trying to ma- neuver out of the worst Russia-West crisis since the Cold War, President Vladi- mir Putin is unleashing a diplomatic blitz involving a series of meetings with Western leaders during his visit to Italy. Putin's two-day trip to a Europe-Asia summit in Mi- lan, which begins Thursday, offers him the first chance to discuss the Ukrainian crisis with EU leaders since his visit to France in June to attend the D-Day anni- versary. The U.S. and the Euro- pean Union have imposed a series of economic sanctions against Moscow over its an- nexation ofthe Crimean Pen- insula and support for a pro- Russia insurgency in eastern Ukraine. High-level contacts have been sharply curtailed, and Putin hasn't traveled to Europe since a brief visit to Vienna in late June. In an interview with the Serbian daily Politika re- leased by the Kremlin on Wednesday, Putin angrily dismissed Western sanc- tions as an "absurd and il- lusory" attempt to isolate Russia. "It is obviously impos- sible to achieve it, but the economic health of Europe and the world can be seri- ously undermined," said Pu- tin, who will make a stop- over in Serbia on Thursday en route to Milan. Putin harshly criticized President Barack Obama for mentioning Russia as a major threat to humanity alongside the Ebola virus and the Islamic State group. "We hope that our partners will realize the futility of at- tempts to blackmail Russia and remember what conse- quences discord between major nuclear powers could bring for strategic stability," he said. Presidential foreign af- fairs adviser Yuri Ushakov said that Putin will meet Thursday with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and attend a dinner in- volving other leaders. They last met face-to-face at the World Cup final in Rio de Janeiro in July. Merkel said she expects to discuss the fulfillment of a cease-fire deal signed last month in Minsk, which has helped reduce hostili- ties but failed to completely halt fighting. "I expect an open ex- change of views and prog- ress in implementing the Minsk agreement. ... We will talk about how we can transform the Minsk agree- ment into reality," Merkel told reporters in Berlin. Putin will focus on Ukraine on Italy trip RUSSIA-WEST CRISIS By Kevin Chan The Associated Press HONG KONG Riot police moving against activists sparked outrage after of- ficers were seen kicking a handcuffed protester and dragging dozens of oth- ers away Wednesday in the worst violence against the pro-democracy demonstra- tions in Hong Kong since they began more than two weeks ago. Clashes that erupted be- fore dawn Wednesday con- tinued early Thursday, as police used pepper spray to push back crowds of pro- testers trying to occupy a road outside the govern- ment's headquarters. Tensions were high but the scenes were not as cha- otic as on Wednesday, when protesters were knocked to the ground by hundreds of police, some with batons, pepper spray and shields. The clashes have wors- ened an already bitter standoff between authori- ties and activists who have taken over key roads and streets in the city to press for democratic reforms. "Hong Kong police have gone insane today, carry- ing out their own punish- ment in private," said pro- democracy lawmaker Lee Cheuk-yan. "Hong Kong's values and its rule of law really have been completely destroyed by police chiefs." Public anger over the ag- gressive tactics exploded after local TV showed of- ficers taking a protester around a dark corner and kicking him repeatedly on the ground. It's unclear what provoked the attack. Local Now TV showed him splashing water on officers beforehand. Protester Ken Tsang said he was kicked while he was "detained and defenseless." He added that he was as- saulted again in the police station afterward. Tsang, a member of a pro-democracy politi- cal party, lifted his shirt to show reporters injuries to his torso and said he is considering legal action against police. Police spokesman Steve Hui said seven officers who were involved have been temporarily reassigned, and that authorities will carry out an impartial in- vestigation. Police arrested 45 demonstrators in the clashes, and said five offi- cers were injured. China's central govern- ment issued its harshest condemnations yet of the protests, calling them il- legal, bad for business and against Hong Kong's best interests. Beijing has be- come increasingly impa- tient with the demonstra- tions, the biggest challenge to its authority since China took control of the former British colony in 1997. A front-page editorial Wednesday in the People's Daily, the ruling Commu- nist Party's mouthpiece, condemned the protests and said "they are doomed to fail." "Facts and history tell us that radical and ille- gal acts that got their way only result in more severe illegal activities, exacerbat- ing disorder and turmoil," the commentary said. "Sta- bility is bliss, and turmoil brings havoc." There were no signs, however, that Beijing was planning to become di- rectly involved in sup- pressing the mostly peace- ful demonstrations, which began Sept. 26. PROTESTS Po li ce ac ti on s in H on g Ko ng s pa rk o ut ra ge By Robert Burns The Associated Press WASHINGTON It's less punchy than previous nick- names for U.S. conflicts in the Middle East — remem- ber Operation Desert Storm and its thunderous attacks against Saddam Hussein? — but the Pentagon has finally named its fight against Is- lamic State militants in Iraq and Syria: Operation Inherent Resolve. The naming, which took weeks of deliberation be- hind closed doors at U.S. Central Command and at the Pentagon, is part of an effort to organize a long- term military campaign. But that name, Inherent Resolve. Inherently bland. It's less awe-inspiring than other names chosen for U.S. military operations in Iraq over the past two de- cades — Desert Shield, Des- ert Storm and Desert Fox, for example. It appears to convey the no-drama ap- proach that marks Presi- dent Barack Obama's style. The staff of Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, chair- man of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, made the final deci- sion, said his spokesman, Col. Ed Thomas. Thomas offered no details. PENTAGON Syria-Iraq fight gets a name: 'Inherent Resolve' By Christopher Sherman The Associated Press TIXTLA, MEXICO Mexi- can police expanded their search for 43 missing col- lege students Wednesday after investigators deter- mined that 28 sets of hu- man remains recovered from a mass grave were not those of any of the youths. The government of Guer- rero state, where the stu- dents went missing after a confrontation with police Sept. 26, said it was sending horse-mounted patrols and trained dogs into the hills aroundIguala,thecitywhere the students were last seen. Meanwhile, forensics ex- aminations are focusing on a second set of clandes- tine graves and a third site where another burial pit was found this week. The digging that contin- ued Wednesday threatened to reveal even greater hor- rors in the gang-controlled countryside. Each search has turned up more hidden graves, raising the question of how many people have been secretly killed by the area's drug gangs, apart from those kidnapped. The wooded hillsides that ring Iguala could be- come a moral swamp for the government, much like the mass graves discovered in northern Mexico in 2010 that revealed a level of al- most unheard-of brutality. "These lamentable acts are a moment that puts to the test the country's in- stitutions," President En- rique Pena Nieto said of the Iguala case in a speech. 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