Turkish troops and U.S.-backed Kurdish fighters exchanged heavy shellfire on Tuesday in the northern Syrian border town of Kobane, leaving one civilian dead as the conflict escalated.
In Sanliurfa province on the Turkish side of the frontier, some 25 km (16 miles) west of Kobane, a Turkish soldier was killed and four were wounded in a mortar attack on a military border post, Turkey's defence ministry said.
The artillery salvoes in Kobane hit within the town and around its edges, starting overnight and intensifying throughout the day, according to residents and the semi-autonomous local administration governing the town.
