Kurdish defenders announced they had given the Americans target coordinates to try to halt an ISIL assault

Kurdish defenders announced they had given the Americans target coordinates to try to halt an ISIL assault as the United States and its allies have reportedly stepped up air strikes in the past two days near the Syrian town of Kobani.

The U.S.-led military coalition said it had bombed ISIL targets in and around Kobani nearly 40 times in the space of 48 hours, around triple the pace of last week.

The Pentagon declined to confirm any coordination with the main Kurdish armed group, YPG. "I just don't have any details to announce or speak to with respect to coordination on the ground," U.S. Rear Admiral John Kirby, the Pentagon's press secretary, told reporters when asked about the report.

Kirby said the situation in Kobani was fluid but that the Pentagon believed Kurdish fighters still held the town.

In the two 24-hour periods since Monday, the U.S. military reported 21 and 18 strikes on militant targets in or near the town, which is called Ayn al-Arab in Arabic.

Kurdish officials said the YPG had begun giving the coordinates of ISIL positions to the U.S.-led alliance.

"The senior people in YPG tell the coalition the location of ISIL targets and they hit accordingly," YPG spokesman Polat Can told Reuters. "Some of (the militants) have withdrawn, but they regroup and return. But because the air strikes are working in coordination, they hit their targets well," he said.

He did not disclose how the YPG fighters were sharing the coordinates.

John Allen, the U.S. special envoy in charge of building the international coalition against Islamic State, suggested that Washington was open to receiving information on targets from all sources. Allen was not asked and did not address whether the Syrian Kurds are giving the U.S.-led alliance such information.