Damascus, Dec 4 (IANS): At least 10 Islamic State (IS) militants were killed in clashes with Kurdish fighters in the predominantly Kurdish city of Kobani, aalso known as Ayn al-Arab, in northern Syria near the Turkish border, a monitoring group reported Thursday.

Intense battles have raged since midnight between the IS and the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) in the Butan and Azadi areas in the city, Xinhua reported citing the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

One member of the YPG was also killed in the clashes.

The US-led coalition struck IS positions before daybreak Thursday while the IS fired at least 19 mortar shells into the city since early morning, the London-based observatory said.

The IS unleashed its offensive against Kobani Sep 15 in a bid to capture the city, which would enable the IS to link its self-declared capital of al-Raqqa province with Kobani and stretch its territory to areas bordering Turkey.

Separately, the observatory, which relies on a network of activists on the ground, said intense clashes flared up Thursday between Syrian government troops and jihadi rebels in the western countryside of the capital Damascus.

The observatory said Syrian troops also shelled the rebel-held resort town of Zabadadni in the countryside of Damascus.

In the southern province of Daraa, government troops clashed with fighters of the Al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front in the town of Sheikh Miskin, aided by aerial bombardment.

The Syrian crisis has been dragging on since 2011 with no sign of abating, despite international efforts to bring it to a close.

The conflict has got more complicated when ultra-radical groups, like the IS and the Nusra Front, joined the fight to serve their own interests in the war-torn country, where over 190,000 people were reportedly killed and millions of others displaced.