THE US-dominated coalition against the Islamic State (Isis) reported yesterday having hit four makeshift Syrian oil refineries under the group’s control, as well as a command centre.

US Central Command asserted that air raids by US, Saudi and United Arab Emirates planes had been successful.

Explosions at a refinery at Tel Abyad, near the Turkish border, lit up the night sky but appeared to have had little effect on the ongoing Isis assault on the Syrian Kurdish city of Kobane.

More than 100,000 refugees have streamed across the nearby border into Turkey in recent days.

Syria’s Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) spokesman Nawaf Khalil said that the strikes had targeted Isis positions near Kobane, destroying two tanks. 

But he added that the jihadist fighters had then shelled the town, wounding a number of civilians.

Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem warned earlier that air strikes alone would “not be able wipe out” Isis. 

Speaking in New York where he was attending the UN general assembly, Mr Moallem said that the US should work with Damascus if it wanted to win the war.

“They must know the importance of co-ordination with the people of this country because they know what goes on there,” he said. 

But Washington has ruled out co-ordination with President Bashar al-Assad’s government, which is at war with Isis as well as other jihadi rebels reportedly backed by the West.

Turkey’s Dogan news agency reported heavy fighting near the Turkish border village of Karaca at the weekend, suggesting that Kurdish fighters had retaken some positions they had lost to Islamist militants a few days ago.

Dozens of people wounded in the fighting had arrived in Turkey for treatment, the agency said.

US Central Command spokesman Max Blumenfeld insisted, in the wake of opposition activist claims that grain silos had been hit, that coalition planes “don’t target food or anything else that can be used by the civilian population.” 

However, he prevaricated, saying that until the military reviews images from planes that participated in air strikes, he could not rule out that silos had been hit.

“Our targets are structures that combatants would use,” he said.