A Syrian Kurdish sniper looks at the rubble in the Syrian city of Ain al-Arab, also known as Kobani
Islamic State militants attacked the Syrian Kurdish stronghold of Kobani, site of one of the group’s biggest setbacks, in an effort to halt the Kurds’ military advance in the country’s north.
At least 12 people and as many as 32 were killed in clashes in the town near the Turkish border, according to Turkish media reports. The Islamic State also attacked a village on the southern outskirts of Kobani, executing at least 20 people by direct gunfire, according to Rami Abdurrahman, head of the U.K.-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which tracks Syria’s civil war through a network of activists.
Kurdish fighters, who repelled the Islamic State march on Kobani in January after months of street battles, captured two towns from the al-Qaeda breakaway group this month with the help of U.S.-led airstrikes. The advance put them in control of more than two-thirds of the border with Turkey and within 50 kilometers of Raqqa, the de facto capital of the Islamic State’s self-declared caliphate in Syria and Iraq.
Wresting control of Kobani would extend the Islamic State’s grip along Syria’s border with NATO-member Turkey. The jihadists’ loss of another border town, Tal Abyad, to Kurdish fighters earlier this month deprived the Islamic State of a major route used to bring in foreign fighters and supplies.
Islamic State gunmen were dressed in the uniforms of Syrian Kurdish fighters when they entered the city, Ibrahim Kurdo, an official with the provincial government of Kobani, said by phone.
“Clashes began around 5 a.m. and most of the civilians here thought sounds of gunfire were from nearby areas,” he said. “They were later surprised that Islamic State militants were inside.”
The fighting followed a car bombing near the border crossing with Turkey, SOHR said.
“Classic Islamic State strategy unfolding in northern Syria this morning,” Charles Lister, visiting fellow at the Brookings Doha Center and author of “The Syrian Jihad,” said on Twitter. “To divert Kurds from Raqqa, a three-pronged assault on” Kobani, as well as an offensive in Hasakah, he said.
The militants’ simultaneous offensive in Hasakah in the northeast put them in control of several neighborhoods in their attempt to take control of a key prison and security headquarters, according to SOHR. Syrian government forces repelled the attacks, state-run television said. Selcan Hacaoglu and Dana Khraiche, Bloomberg
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