Kurdish fighters thwarted a bid by Islamic State group jihadists to advance into the centre of the battleground Syrian town of Kobane early this morning, according to a monitoring group.
The attack came after the IS militants overran Kurdish headquarters in the border town yesterday.
The offensive sparked fears they would cut off the last escape route to neighbouring Turkey for hundreds of mainly elderly civilians still in the town centre.
The IS assault sparked 90 minutes of heavy fighting with the town's Kurdish defenders before the jihadists fell back, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
US-led coalition warplanes also carried out two air strikes on IS targets south and east of the town early this morning, according to the Britain-based monitoring group, which has a wide network of sources inside Syria.
Small groups of Kurdish fighters were trying to harry the encircling jihadists with operations across the front line, Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman said.
UN envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura warned yesterday that 12,000 or so civilians still in or near Kobane, including 700 mainly elderly people in the town centre, "will most likely be massacred" by IS if the town falls.
Kobane was "literally surrounded" except for one narrow entry and exit point to the Turkish border, Mr de Mistura said.
Meanwhile, more than 20,000 Kurds protested against the Islamic State group in the western German city of Duesseldorf.
Several Kurdish organisations called the demonstration to protest attacks by IS jihadist militants on Kurdish towns in Syria, particularly the besiegement of the city of Kobane.
Clashes between Kurds and radical Muslims in the northern German cities of Hamburg and Celle left more than 20 people injured earlier this week.
Concern has grown in Berlin about a spillover of the tensions in Syria and Iraq to Germany, which is home to an estimated one million ethnic Kurds.
