BEIRUT -- A senior Kurdish fighter says the Islamic State group is closing in on the town of Kobani along the Syria-Turkey border and that his men are preparing for street battles.

The Kurdish town in northern Syria has been under assault by the Islamic extremists since mid-September.

Ismet Sheikh Hasan says the militants were still advancing on Thursday, despite renewed U.S.-led airstrikes in the area overnight.

Hasan spoke to The Associated Press over the phone from the frontline near Kobani, also known as Ayn Arab in Arabic. He says he believes the Islamic State fighters are a few kilometres (miles) away.

There was no immediate confirmation from Washington on the latest airstrikes.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an activist group tracking the Syrian conflict, also reported the airstrikes.