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ISIS Attacks Two Border Towns in Northern Syria ISIS Attacks Two Border Towns in Northern Syria
(about 3 hours later)
BEIRUT, Lebanon — The jihadists of the Islamic State carried out two new offensives in northern Syria on Thursday, driving car bombs into the Kurdish town of Kobani, according to opposition activists and Syrian state-run news media. Kobani gained international attention last year as the site of a fierce battle between the Islamic State and Kurdish fighters, aided by airstrikes by a United States-led military coalition. BEIRUT, Lebanon — The militants of the Islamic State carried out two new offensives in northern Syria on Thursday, entering a provincial capital and detonating large bombs in the border town of Kobani, where intensive airstrikes by a United States-led coalition helped Kurdish forces rout the jihadists last year.
The Islamic State fighters also attacked the government-held city of Hasaka, near the Turkish border, news reports said. In southern Syria, rebel groups began a new campaign to push government forces from the city of Daraa.
The new attacks came about a week after the jihadists lost control of the border town of Tal Abyad to a coalition of Kurdish militias and Arab rebels in what was seen as a strategic setback for the terrorist group. But the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, has in the past followed its losses with new attacks on other areas it considers vulnerable. The new attacks by the Islamic State came more than a week after its fighters lost the town of Tal Abyad, on the Turkish border, to Kurdish militias and Arab rebels in what was seen as a strategic setback for the group. In striking back, the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, appeared to be trying to counter losses in one place with attacks on other sites it considers vulnerable, a tactic it has employed before.
Kurdish activists in Kobani said that the jihadists set off at least two car bombs and that groups of fighters took up positions in the town and shot at anyone they saw, setting off clashes with Kurdish militiamen. Kurdish activists inside Kobani said Islamic State fighters disguised in the uniforms of Kurdish militiamen had sneaked into the town at dawn, when few people were awake. Then a large truck bomb exploded at the town’s border crossing with Turkey, setting off clashes between the Islamic State militants and local Kurdish forces.
They said the Islamic State fighters had sneaked into the town disguised as Kurdish militiamen and Arab rebels. “They entered the neighborhoods and started killing civilians on their way,” said Baran Mesko, a Kurdish activist in Kobani. In a telephone interview, he said about 100 Islamic State fighters disguised as locals had taken up positions in Kobani, a small, strategic frontier town near the Syrian border with Turkey.
The death toll remained unclear. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors the conflict from Britain through contacts on the ground, said eight Islamic State fighters had been killed in addition to 12 civilians and Kurdish fighters. Activists in the town reported higher numbers but said they could not obtain a full count because of the continuing battle. At least one more bombing followed, reportedly a suicide attack by a jihadist on a motorcycle, and Islamic State fighters were said to be blowing themselves up with explosive vests and killing civilians.
Salih Muslim, a Kurdish activist in Kobani, said by phone that the fighting continued late Thursday, with bodies lying in the streets that could not be removed because Islamic State snipers would shoot at rescue crews. Kobani, known as Ain al-Arab in Arabic, gained prominence in the fight against the Islamic State last year, when Kurdish fighters fought for months to keep the group out, eventually succeeding in January with the help of intensive airstrikes by the United States-led coalition that has been bombing the militants in Iraq and Syria.
The Syrian state news agency, SANA, reported that five people were killed by the initial car bomb and that Kurdish forces were fighting jihadists who had sneaked into the town overnight. By Thursday evening the Islamic State militants were holed up in a school that had been converted into a hospital and were holding a number of Kurdish families hostage, Mr. Mesko said.
Kobani, a small, poor border town known as Ain al-Arab in Arabic, gained prominence in January, when Kurdish forces finally routed the Islamic State jihadists who were trying to seize the town after losses on both sides and scores of airstrikes. Salih Muslim, another Kurdish activist in Kobani, said the fighting continued late Thursday, and that Islamic State snipers were preventing crews from removing bodies lying in the streets.
That battle highlighted Turkey’s complicated relationship with the war just over its border, because the Turkish Army did not intervene against the jihadists nor join the international coalition against them. Turkish leaders have since made it clear that they consider any Kurdish advance near their border a potential threat to national security. The death toll from the fighting was unclear. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors the conflict from Britain through contacts on the ground, said that 14 Islamic State fighters had been killed in addition to 35 civilians and Kurdish fighters. Activists reported higher numbers of casualties, but said they could not get a more accurate count because of the continuing fighting.
The distrust is mutual, and some Kurdish activists said Thursday that at least one of the car bombs had come from the Turkish side of the border, a charge Turkish officials denied. The Syrian state news agency, SANA, also reported the clashes, saying five people were killed by the initial truck bomb.
That battle highlighted Turkey’s complicated relationship with the war just over its border: the Turkish Army did not intervene against the Islamic State nor did its soldiers join the international coalition against them. While Turkish leaders have condemned the Islamic State, they have also made it clear that they consider any Kurdish advance near their border a potential threat to national security.
The Kurdish militias fighting in Syria are linked to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or P.K.K., which fought a deadly insurgency against the Turkish state.
The distrust is mutual, and some Kurdish activists said Thursday that at least one bomber had entered the town from Turkey, a charge Turkish officials denied.
Speaking to reporters in Ankara on Thursday, a spokesman for the Turkish foreign ministry, Tanju Bilgic, called those claims “baseless lies.”Speaking to reporters in Ankara on Thursday, a spokesman for the Turkish foreign ministry, Tanju Bilgic, called those claims “baseless lies.”
Mr. Bilgic said that 63 wounded people had been brought across the border for medical treatment in Turkey after the explosion and that two of them had died in the hospital. Mr. Bilgic said that 63 people who had been wounded were brought across the border from Syria for treatment in Turkey after the explosions and that two died in the hospital.
Farther east, Islamic State fighters entered southern parts of the city of Hasaka, sending civilians fleeing and clashing with government forces, who carried out airstrikes on militant positions. Farther east, Islamic State fighters seized southern parts of the city of Hasaka, the regional capital of the oil-rich province of the same name. Control of the city had been split between Kurdish forces and the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, but activists said government forces had withdrawn to the city center.
The Islamic State advance sent civilians streaming out of the area, according to photos and videos posted online.
The news agency SANA also reported the Islamic State incursion in Hasaka, accusing militants of using human shields in fierce clashes with government forces.
In southern Syria, a coalition of rebel fighters began a new offensive to push government forces from the city of Daraa, widely regarded as the birthplace of the uprising against Mr. Assad that began in 2011 and later devolved into the civil war.
The Islamic State has only a small presence in southern Syria and most of the groups involved in the fighting there are nationalists seeking to oust Mr. Assad. Some have received financial and military support from the West through Jordan. Fighters from the Nusra Front, the Syrian affiliate of Al Qaeda, were also involved.