jihadi fighters raised

Turkey has long suspected the YPG is linked to the Kurdish PKK, which waged a long and bloody insurgency against Ankara, while the Syrian opposition has accused the group of conspiring with Assad, charges the YPG denies. On Monday, jihadi fighters raised two of their black flags on the outskirts of Kobani and punctured the Kurdish front lines, advancing into the town itself. But the Observatory said the Kurds forced the jihadists to withdraw from the eastern part of the town in heavy clashes after midnight. It said five loud explosions were heard in the town as warplanes soared overhead. The Observatory said the jihadists were meanwhile able to capture several buildings on the southern edge of Kobani as well as a hospital under construction on the western side. The Observatory and the Local Coordination Committees, another activist group, also reported coalition airstrikes on the eastern province of Deir el-Zour. The United States and five Arab allies launched an aerial campaign against the Islamic State in Syria on Sept. 23 with the aim of rolling back and ultimately crushing the extremist group. The U.S. has been bombing Islamic State targets in neighboring Iraq since August. The Islamic State group has conquered vast swaths of Syria and Iraq, declaring a self-styled caliphate governed by a harsh version of Shariah law. The militants have massacred captured Syrian and Iraqi troops, terrorized minorities and beheaded two American journalists and two British aid workers. Spain has placed in quarantine the husband of a Spanish nurse who has tested positive for the Ebola virus in the first known transmission outside West Africa. Public Health Director Mercedes Vinuesa told Parliament on Tuesday that authorities were drawing up a list of other people who may have had contact with the nurse so that they can be monitored. The nurse had helped treat a Spanish priest who died Sept. 25 in a Madrid hospital designated for treating Ebola patients. He had been flown home from Sierra Leone. She was hospitalized in Madrid on Monday. Vinuesa said Spain had several therapies available and had begun applying them Monday, but gave no further details. The nurse, whose name has not been released