WASHINGTON: The United States is facing the limits of air power in the Syria border town of Kobane, where Islamic State (IS) militants are steadily closing in on Kurdish fighters despite a series of US bombing raids.
Fighter jets and drones from the world's most powerful air force have carried out at least eight attacks over the past week against the IS group near Kobane, but the air raids have failed so far to turn the tide in the battle for the strategic town near the Turkish border.
For some analysts and former US officials, the town's plight illustrates how bombing from the air has serious limitations without troops to guide the strikes to a target or a well-organized ally who can take advantage of the air raid.
The Kurdish defenders are far from a coherent army and are badly outgunned, said Seth Jones, a former adviser to US special operations forces.
"At this point, it looks like Kurdish fighters face a well-organized and well-funded ISIS (IS group) force," he said.
"This is a notable concern across Syria, where US airpower is not being coordinated well with ground forces -- in part since there are a plethora of rebel groups in Syria," Jones said.
The number of US strikes near Kobane has been limited, and on a smaller-scale compared to some other locations, which some experts say reflects a murky intelligence picture.
Without forward air controllers in Kobane, fighter pilots likely find it difficult to distinguish friend from foe, particularly as the IS militants seek to move among civilians to conceal their location, said Ben Connable, a retired Marine Corps intelligence officer.
"We probably don't have good enough intelligence to separate all the prospective targets from friendly fighters," Connable, now a senior anlayst at the RAND Corporation think tank, told AFP.
Even with the advanced cameras and sensors on US warplanes, clearly identifying an enemy target remains difficult, and even more challenging in poor weather, Connable said.
"It's hard to tell," he said. "You may think you have identified something in a video, but you may not have."
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