DHAKA: A group linked to al-Qaeda has pledged retaliation over the ongoing air strikes in Syria as the US-led coalition widens its assault on ISIL targets in Syria and British warplanes fly their first combat missions over neighbouring Iraq.
In its first reaction to the military operation aimed at destroying ISIL, or the Islamic State of Syria and the Levant, the Nusra Front, al-Qaeda's Syrian branch, said the air strikes in Syria were "war against Islam", and threatened to attack the worldwide interests of participating Western and Arab countries.
In a video posted online on Saturday, a Nusra Front spokesman threatened the coalition partners.
"These states have committed a horrible act that is going to put them on the list of jihadist targets throughout the world," Abu Firas al-Suri said.
The warning came on a day the Pentagon said seven targets were hit in Syria, including at the border crossing into Turkey of the Kurdish town of Ain al-Arab, called Kobane by Kurds, which has been under siege by fighters of ISIL.
The air strikes came a day after hundreds of Kurdish fighters crossed from Turkey to reinforce Ain al-Arab's defenders.
Newaf Khalil, a senior Syrian Kurdish official, told AFP news agency that some air strikes hit the ISIL-held town of Ali Shar, east of Ain al-Arab, destroying several of the Sunni-led group's tanks.
Saturday was the second time US-led air strikes had been reported around Ain al-Arab since the ISIL advance began.
Hundreds of Syrian Kurdish refugees, clutching whatever they could grab, crossed the border on Saturday to safety.
Al Jazeera's Stefanie Dekker, reporting on Saturday from the Turkish side of the border, said smoke could be seen from the eastern side of the town after what sounded like an explosion.
She said those Kurdish refugees who had left their homes in Syria seemed to be disappointed by the US-led air campaign.
"Many of the people we have spoken to do not see the usefulness of the strikes as the ISIL continues to push into their areas," she said.
BDST: 0920 HRS, SEP 28, 2014
