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Isis attacks areas held by Syrian army and Kurdish militia Isis attacks areas held by Syrian army and Kurdish militia
(about 2 hours later)
Islamic State fighters have launched simultaneous attacks against the Syrian army and Kurdish militia overnight, going back on the offensive after losing ground in recent days to Kurdish-led forces in Raqqa province. Islamic State militants flying the Free Syrian Army flag and disguised in FSA uniforms have launched an attack under the cover of darkness on the Syrian border town of Kobani.
The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Isis had re-entered the border town of Kobani, where it is battling Kurdish militia, and wrested positions from the Syrian army in an assault on the north-eastern city of Hasakah. The militants drove five vehicles into the town in the early hours of Thursday, used a suicide bomber to blow up a border crossing with Turkey, and began firing at random at inhabitants.
Kobani was captured by Kurdish forces from Isis in January after months of fighting. Overnight Isis launched a new offensive on the town, starting with a car bomb explosion near the border crossing, the observatory said. Around the same time, the group launched an assault on the north-eastern city of Hasakah, aided by militias who had been aligned with the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, but were converted to the Isis cause. Western districts were seized and the army was pushed into the city centre.
Hospital officials in the town, also known as Ayn al-Arab, told Reuters that at least 12 people were killed and 70 wounded in the blast and subsequent fighting. The surprise, two-pronged offensive came as Isis reels from several high-profile defeats near Raqqa, the capital of its self-declared caliphate and its seat of power in Syria.
“Isis detonated a suicide bomb in the area near the border crossing with Turkey, killing at least five people,” said observatory director, Rami Abdurrahman. “Fierce clashes erupted afterwards in the centre of the town and there are bodies lying in the streets.” Related: Inside the Islamic State ‘capital’: no end in sight to its grim rule
Abdurrahman did not give a specific death toll and said fighting was still raging on Thursday morning. The Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) militia and an alliance of rebels known as the “Euphrates Volcano” – backed US-led coalition air strikes – have seized swaths of territory from Isis, including the strategic border town of Tal Abyad. In recent days they also wrested control of Brigade 93, a strategic base seized by Isis from the Syrian regime, and the town of Ain Issa, bringing them within 30 miles of Raqqa itself.
A Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) official also reported that a car bomb had exploded as Isis militants staged an attack from three sides of the town. “Islamic State’s morale has collapsed after the advance in the Raqqa countryside,” said Redur Xelil, the YPG spokesman who provided the accounts of the latest Isis offensive. “They are trying to raise the morale of their fighters and supporters, and show that they still have strength and can strike out elsewhere.”
Thousands of people who fled Kobani across the border to Turkey during the original fighting have since returned. Welat Omer, a doctor, told Reuters that about 60-70 people had been wounded in the latest attacks, many of them women and children. He also said that another goal of the Isis offensive may be to draw Kurdish troops away from the frontline to defend other territories.
In recent weeks, YPG forces have advanced from Kobani in Aleppo province into neighbouring Raqqa province, the Isis stronghold. They captured the strategic town of Tal Abyad, also on the border with Turkey, and pushed towards Isis’s de-facto Syrian capital, Raqqa city. Xelil said the militants who entered Kobani numbered between 30 and 40, and were holed up in buildings in the city after killing dozens of people. The YPG, backed by the Kurdish Asayish security forces, were combing the area and he was confident they would defeat the militants. Clashes were continuing on Thursday morning.
Meanwhile, Syrian state TV reported heavy clashes between Isis fighters and the Syrian army and allied militia in the al-Nashwa district of Hasakah, which is divided into separate zones of government and Kurdish control. “We will destroy this group that entered the city,” he said.
In a separate offensive, rebel groups attacked Syrian government-held areas of Deraa city in the south, the observatory said. Insurgents have dealt the forces of the president, Bashar al-Assad, significant blows in the area in recent months. Late last year, Isis was on the verge of conquering Kobani, an enclave on the Turkish border, but Kurdish fighters backed by the US-led coalition ultimately succeeded in reversing the militants’ advance and liberating the city, killing over a thousand Isis fighters in a months-long battle that emerged as a symbol of the Kurds’ defiance.
The southern rebels, who include the al-Qaida-linked al-Nusra Front and groups that do not share its jihadi ideology, have long said they aim to expel Syrian government forces from Deraa city itself. Syrian state TV said the army had repelled attacks against a number of military positions in the south of the country. Many refugees who fled the city have since returned to their homes, many of which had been levelled during the fighting.
About 70% of Deraa province is already under the control of rebel groups, AFP reported. The joint Kurdish-rebel advance in recent weeks has provided a glimmer of hope in the fight against Isis. Last month, Isis seized the historic city of Palmyra in Homs province and Ramadi, the provincial capital of Anbar in Iraq, casting doubt on the entire strategy to contain the group.
The more serious threat is the Isis assault – its fourth – on Hasakah, a city divided between the Assad regime and the Kurds. Around midnight, Isis launched an offensive that has so far claimed the lives of 30 pro-regime troops and 20 militants, according to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a monitoring group with a wide range of contacts inside Syria.
The attack triggered the flight of civilians from the area, and the regime has responded with a series of air strikes on militant positions south of the city. Isis used suicide bombers to soften up regime positions.
In a statement circulated on social media, Isis said it took control of western neighbourhoods and forced the regime’s troops to retreat to the city centre, seemingly in shock at what the militants described as a “daring operation”.
Xelil, who said the Kurds were not yet involved in the battle for Hasakah, said Isis had succeeded in winning the allegiance of members of the pro-Assad National Defence Forces – local militias that support the regime – allowing them to prepare the ground for the assault on the city.
The tactic is in keeping with the traditional Isis modus operandi of infiltrating areas prior to launching major assaults.
In a separate, major offensive in Syria’s south on Thursday, about 51 rebel groups joined together to attack regime-held areas of Deraa city, where insurgents have dealt Assad’s forces significant blows in recent months.
The southern rebels, including the al-Qaida-linked al-Nusra Front and groups that do not share its jihadi ideology, have long said they aim to expel Syrian government forces from Deraa. Syrian state TV said the army had repelled attacks against a number of military positions in the south of the country.