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Live blog update| Islamic State

Kurdish newspaper: IS within 1 km of Kobane

English-language Kurdish newspaper Slemani Times, based in Iraqi Kurdistan, reports that Islamic State fighters are now under one kilometre away from the Kurdish border town of Kobane (known as Ayn al-Arab in Arabic).

 
The UN refugee agency said on Tuesday that it is making contingency plans in case the entire population of the town, 400,000 people, flee in the face of the IS advance, as well as the airstrikes that could target the area.
Many have already fled, although it is unclear how many people remain in the town.
Photo credit: AA
A spokesperson for Turkey's Kurdish Regional Government, Safeen Dizayee, said on Wednesday night that "there should be more of an effort to avert what is becoming a humanitarian catastrophe" in the town.