MURSITPINAR, Turkey — In its battle for the Syrian town of Kobani, the Islamic State group enjoys a key advantage: a supply of weapons, ammunition and fighters shuttling between Syria and Iraq.

The town’s Syrian Kurdish defenders, while backed by airstrikes from the U.S.-led coalition, are outnumbered, poorly armed and squeezed against the unwelcoming Turkish border. Reflecting growing desperation despite their success so far in holding out, Syrian Kurdish officials are increasingly their appeals to better arm the defenders of the strategic frontier town.

“From the start, we said the coalition’s airstrikes will not be able to save Kobani or to defeat Daesh in the area,” said Idriss Nassan, deputy head of Kobani’s foreign relations committee, using an Arabic acronym for the Islamic State group.

“We call upon the international community to open a humanitarian safe passage to allow in food, medicine, and weapons supplies,” Nassan told The Associated Press.

It’s unclear what friendly countries could do. Weapons for Kurdish fighters would have to cross through Turkey – a request the Ankara government is likely to rebuff.

The Islamic State group launched its Kobani offensive in mid-September, capturing dozens of nearby Kurdish villages and a third of the town in lightning advances that sent waves of civilians fleeing over the border into Turkey.

Bolstered by the intensified air campaign targeting the Islamic State group, Kurdish militiamen were able to regain some of the positions they lost in recent days. The U.S. Central Command said Thursday it most recently launched 14 airstrikes on Islamic State group targets near Kobani, hitting 19 buildings and two command posts, as well as fighting and sniper positions, and a heavy machine gun.

“Indications are that airstrikes have continued to slow ISIL advances, but that the security situation on the ground in Kobani remains tenuous,” the military said, using another acronym for the group.

But the Kurds fear their luck will run out without heavier weapons and more fighters to back their cause. About 3,000 to 4,000 Kurds are fighting to block the Sunni militant group from seizing Kobani, according to estimates from different Kurdish fighters. They have urged Turkey to open the border to allow members of the Kurdish militia in northwestern Syria – known as the People’s Protection Units, or YPG – to travel through Turkish territory to reinforce Kobani.

But Turkey is wary of the Syrian Kurds and their YPG militia, which it believes is affiliated with the Kurdish PKK movement in southeast Turkey that has waged a long and bloody insurgency.

The Syrian Kurdish fighters, who include a few women, are armed only with AK-47s and other light weapons, according to Sirwan Kajjo, a Syrian Kurdish analyst.