IS closes in on key Syria border town

Islamic State group fighters closed in to within only a few kilometres of the key Kurdish town of Kobane on Syria's border with Turkey, despite new air strikes by the US-led coalition.

It is the closest the militants had come to the town since they began advancing toward it nearly two weeks ago, sending tens of thousands of refugees across the border, said a Britain-based monitoring group.

As they advanced, the militants fired at least 15 rockets at the town centre, killing at least one person, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, adding other rockets hit the border zone.

NATO member Turkey deployed tanks to reinforce its side of the border and said parliament would this week debate joining the coalition against the jihadists operating on the country's doorstep.