Smoke and flames rise over a hill near the Syrian town of Kobani, Oct. 23.

DAMASCUS — The Syrian border town of Kobani appears in less danger of falling to the “Islamic State,” but the threat still remains, U.S. officials said on Thursday, offering a measured view of a key battle against the militant group.

Officials at the U.S. military’s Central Command warned the “Islamic State” could ultimately capture the town, even after coalition air strikes and air drops of weapons and medical supplies to help Syrian Kurdish fighters fend off the militants in street battles.

One U.S. defense official, speaking to reporters on condition of anonymity, suggested Kurdish forces appeared likely to hold some ground unless the current battleground dynamic changes. That is despite “Islamic State” efforts to reinforce their fighters there.

“With the current air strikes that are going on in support of the Kurdish fighters who know the town, the line has kind of stabilized,” the official said.

A U.S. military official, also speaking on condition of anonymity, said it was too soon to say whether the resupply of weapons would make a difference.

The official extolled the Kurdish fighters, saying: “It (Kobani) could fall. But they’re fighting very well right now.”

Asked whether Kobani was in less in danger, he added: “I would say so.”

The battle for Kobani is becoming a focal point in the U.S.-led coalition campaign against the group in Syria and in Iraq, and Central Command announced more air strikes around the town near Turkey’s border on Thursday.

The targets included the militant group’s fighting positions, as well as a command center and a vehicle. The U.S.-led coalition has carried out 286 air strikes in Syria since launching air strikes there a month ago.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Thursday agreement had been reached on sending 200 Kurdish peshmerga fighters from Iraq through Turkey to help defend Kobani. 

A senior official in Iraq’s Kurdistan region said the peshmerga would be equipped with heavier ordinance than is now used by Kurdish fighters in Kobani, who say they need armor-piercing weapons to fend off “Islamic State.” 

Erdogan criticized on Wednesday an American airdrop of supplies and weapons near Kobani, saying the United States had mistakenly aided the militants besieging the town instead of the Kurdish fighters defending it.

“What was done here was wrong,” Erdogan said at a news conference in Ankara, the capital. “Why? Because some of the weapons they dropped from the C-130s were seized by the”Islamic State.”

Erdogan said he opposed any United States assistance to the Kurdish fighters affiliated with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, a separatist group in Turkey that Ankara and Washington regard as a terrorist organization.

Air strikes by U.S.-led forces have killed 521 religious extremist fighters and 32 civilians during a month-long campaign in Syria, a monitoring group which tracks the violence said on Thursday.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the vast majority of the deaths, 464, were militants from “Islamic State.”

The attacks also killed 57 members of the al-Qaeda-affiliated Nusra Front, the Observatory said. Six of the civilians were children and five were women, it added.

The United States has been carrying out strikes in Iraq against “Islamic State” since July and in Syria since September with the help of Arab allies. Britain and France have also struck “Islamic State” targets in Iraq.

Washington justified its action in Syria under Article 51 of the U.N. Charter, which covers an individual or collective right to self-defense against armed attack.

U.S. Central Command spokesman Colonel Patrick Ryder said on Saturday that Washington took “reports of civilian casualties or damage to civilian facilities seriously and we have a process to investigate each allegation.”

Close to 200,000 people have been killed in Syria’s three-year civil war, according to the United Nations.

Coalition strikes have hit the Syrian provinces of Aleppo, Deir al-Zor, Idlib, Raqqa and al-Hassakah, the Observatory said.