There has been fierce fighting all week in the strategic Syrian Kurish town of Kobane, located near the Turkish border, between Islamic State and Kurdish forces. US-led airstrikes have dented IS advances, but these have not been enough to stop the jihadists.

The Pentagon made it clear on Wednesday that coalition air strikes may not be enough to save Kobane from falling to IS, which makes one wonder how the whole international community, in particular Turkey, seems to be so calm about this possibility. It also raises questions about whether an international force of ground troops, not necessarily American, should be deployed to battle IS.

Seizing Kobane would give IS full control of a long stretch of the Syrian-Turkish border and would without doubt present a huge threat to Turkey, besides creating another huge wave of refugees crossing over the Turkish border. It would also present a huge propaganda victory for IS, which will no doubt boast that not even airstrikes by the mighty US could stop its advances.

Although Turkey has been under international pressure to intervene and help the Kurdish forces fighting IS in Kobane, the country’s Foreign Minister, Mevlut Cavusoglu, said Turkey cannot be expected to lead a ground operation on its own. He also called for the creation of a no-fly zone over its border with Syria, something which has so far received a lukewarm response from the West.

There is no doubt Turkey has a huge role to play in the fight against IS. It is a major regional power with the second-largest armed forces in Nato and it carries a lot of weight in the Sunni Muslim world. It has also taken in 1.5 million Syrian refugees, at a huge social and economic cost, and deserves credit for this. However, it has been accused in the past of turning a blind eye to large numbers of jihadists crossing its border into Syria and it has so far refused to help the Syrian Kurds in the siege of Kobani.

Turkey and America’s Muslim coalition partners must take a more active role in this conflict, even if this means sending in ground troops

Furthermore, Turkey has not been allowing Turkish Kurds to cross over the border to Kobane to help their Syrian cousins and even tear gassed and killed a number of Kurds protesting at Ankara’s reluctance to fight IS, even though the Turkish Parliament approved the use of military force against the jihadists.

Turkey’s position is that if it is to take an active part in the US-led coalition there must be more of an effort made at getting rid of the Assad regime.

While in the long run there is no doubt that Assad must go, the Syrian President does not present a threat to either Turkey or the region, so the focus must really be on defeating IS, which is a huge threat to humanity.

In addition, it is clear that Turkey’s reluctance to help the Syrian Kurds is due to a great extent to the fact that these are connected to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) which Ankara considers a terrorist organisation and which conducted a 30-year military campaign against Turkey.

However, last year the Turkish government and the jailed PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan began a dialogue on the Kurdish question, with Öcalan later announcing the end of armed struggle and peace talks. An opportunity now exists to end the dispute between the two sides – what better way to get the Kurds on your own side than by helping them defeat IS?

The US-led airstrikes are without doubt effective to a certain extent in the fight against IS and have stopped some of the jihadists’ advances, but it is clear that some kind of ground action by foreign forces is going to have to take place if IS is to be truly defeated.

The Iraqi military, the Syrian moderate rebels and the Kurds – the latter have been putting up a very brave fight – all have an important role to play – but can they defeat IS on their own?

To complicate matters further, Iraqi officials have now made an urgent appeal for military help in the western Anbar province, saying the area could soon fall to IS militants. Anbar is a strategically important province and is where Iraq’s second-largest dam, the Haditha dam, is located. An Anbar controlled by IS would give control of a vast territory across much of Syria and Iraq, making Baghdad an easier target for the jihadists.

At this critical point in time there is no doubt that there must be some new thinking about how to confront and defeat IS. The US must take the lead, but Turkey and America’s Muslim coalition partners must take a more active role in this conflict, even if this means sending in ground troops. And unpleasant as this may sound, some sort of arrangement must be sought with the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad.