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The Syrian town of Kobani near the Turkish border is set to fall despite continued air strikes by U.S. led coalition against ISIS Islamic militants.

The New York Times reported that warplanes from the American-led coalition fighting militants of the Islamic State were reported on Tuesday to have struck targets in Syria near the Turkish border in support of Kurdish forces locked in street fighting with the militants.

Syrian Kurdish fighters have been fighting to hold on to Kobani, but they are barely hanging on to the vastly better equipped ISIS fighters.

U.S. led coalition airstrikes have stepped up attacks against ISIS militants but it seems it has had little effect in stopping the militants from taking Kobani.

The Associated Press reported the airstrikes began late Monday and came as Kurdish forces pushed Islamic State militants out of the eastern part of Kobani, where the jihadists had raised their black flag over buildings hours earlier, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. On Tuesday morning journalists on the Turkish side of the border heard the sound of warplanes before two large plumes of smoke billowed just west of Kobani.

The Associated Press continued to report the assault has forced some 160,000 Syrians to flee and put a strain on Kurdish forces, who have struggled to hold off the extremists. Hundreds more civilians fled Kobani on Monday as the jihadists advanced, according to the Observatory, which relies on a network of activists inside Syria.

The question which needs to be asked is how effective are U.S. air strikes against ISIS? The U.S. has been conducting air strikes against ISIS inside Iraq since August and inside Syria since last month, but it still has not stopped ISIS momentum.

ISIS still contains the same territory id did before the airstrikes began.  Various military leaders have publically stated that air strikes alone would not accomplish the goals set out by the president, especially the way the airstrikes are being conducted.

The second question, why has the U.S. not been arming the various fighters we are going to need for any ground operation, since the president has repeatedly stated “no U.S. boot’s on the ground”.

A third question, is what is the status of Iraqi troops since reports have begun to filter back that ISIS is at the gates of Baghdad and they have the potential of taking the Baghdad airport.

There are a lot of unanswered questions and delaying answering these and a host of others will not make the situation any better.