DHAKA: US military aircraft have dropped weapons, ammunition and medical supplies to Kurdish fighters battling Islamic State (IS) militants in the key Syrian town of Kobane.

US Central Command said C-130 transport aircraft had made ‘multiple’ drops, reports the BBC on Monday.

Earlier US air strikes have helped push back IS militants intent on taking control of the town, which lies near the border with Turkey.

Correspondents say the move is likely to anger key US ally Turkey.

Turkey has faced a decades-long insurgency by the Kurdish militant group the PKK, itself regarded as a terrorist group by the US.

IS militants control territory straddling Syria and Iraq. Kobane is one of their strategic objectives, and fierce fighting has raged in the town for weeks, forcing the evacuation of most of its civilian inhabitants.

BDST: 1005 HRS, OCT 20, 2014